Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.The International Passenger Survey (IPS) aims to collect data on both credits and debits for the travel account of the Balance of Payments, provide detailed visit information on overseas visitors to the United Kingdom (UK) for tourism policy, and collect data on international migration.
The depositor recommends that only expert users who are familiar with the coding and weighting structures use this dataset as limited support is available. Some considerable understanding of the data is required before meaningful analyses can be made, and care must be taken when performing time series operations as codes can vary from year to year. Not all variables from one years dataset are used in other years. The data comprises five files, ALCOHOL, AIRMILES, QREGTOWN and QCONTACT with four quarters per file and SPORT, where one file covers all four quarters. These can be joined together using the variables YEAR, SERIAL, FLOW and QUARTER. The weighting of IPS data is complex and done in several stages. When working with the system weights, great care should be taken to read the documentation concerning weighting procedures as not all records are treated in exactly the same way.
Main Topics:
The main dataset for 2002 contains 147 variables and covers: AIRMILES - quarter; flow; serial; United Kingdom port or route; direct leg overseas port; final overseas port; distance from United Kingdom port to first port; from first to second port; from United Kingdom port to second port. ALCOHOL - year; quarter; month; flow; serial; money spent on spirits; wine; beer; cigarettes; hand-rolled and other tobacco. QREGTOWN - year; quarter; month; flow; serial; towns stayed in overnight; number of nights spent in towns; accommodation in towns; expenditure in towns; regional stay weight; regional visit weight; regional expenditure weight; various validation checks. QCONTACT - year; quarter; month; flow; serial; nationality; country of visit/residence; United Kingdom counties; date visit began; purpose of visit; organised conference; intended length of stay; number of people; package tour and cost; fare part of package; expenditure pre, post and during visit; flight prefix and suffix; first carrier air or shipping line; direct leg port from the United Kingdom; final port; long or short haul; type of vehicle; number travelling in vehicle; fare type and cost; class of travel; business trip; type of flight; flight origin or destination; transfer between flights; gender; age group; United Kingdom port or route; quality of response; date of interview; money transfer, net and total expenditure; English language course; foreign language questionnaire; weighting variables; various validation checks. SPORT - serial; flow; quarter; month; watch a sporting event; take part in amateur sport event; was this main reason of visit.
Multi-stage stratified random sample
Face-to-face interview
