How India measures domestic tourism: DTES and Tourism Satellite Account
Why in news: MoSPI released the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey 2025-26 (NSS 80th round, July 2025-June 2026) on 23 September 2026, the first since 2014-15.
India measures domestic tourism from two sides. The National Statistics Office's Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey asks households about overnight and same-day trips and their cost; the Ministry of Tourism's Tourism Satellite Account matches that spending with national accounts to estimate tourism's share of GDP and jobs. MoSPI released the 2025-26 survey's results on 23 September 2026.
Syllabus: GS3 · Indian Economy & Growth; Prelims · Current Affairs & IR; Prelims · Economy & Social Development
Why this matters for UPSC
GS3 economy (measuring a sector's share of GDP and jobs) and Prelims: who runs the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey, who prepares the Tourism Satellite Account and how it derives Tourism Direct GDP; Mains, the reliability of official statistics.
In short
The National Statistics Office's Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey counts household trips and spending; the Tourism Satellite Account converts that spending into tourism's share of GDP and jobs.
The survey shows how Indians travel; the satellite account values it. Both need fresher, comparable rounds before tourism's GDP share can steer policy confidently.
Why it matters
A lodge owner in a pilgrim town, a bus operator and a State tourism department all work from these numbers. If a survey misses trips, roads, toilets, lodges and clinics near busy pilgrimage and medical destinations are planned on guesswork. The household survey also sees travel that hotel registers cannot: most family visits end at a relative's home, where no hotel return is filed. The satellite account turns those trips into the figures the Ministry of Tourism cites for the sector's weight in output and employment. And when a survey changes its design, a rise in the published numbers may come from the new questions, not from more travel, so a careful reader checks what was asked before comparing years.
Prelims pointers
- National Sample Survey: set up by the Government of India in 1950 to collect socio-economic data by scientific sampling; its rounds are now run by the NSO under MoSPI.
- NSS 65th round (2008-09): first comprehensive domestic tourism survey, at the Ministry of Tourism's request; it collected trip details and spending for 30 days only, inflated to 365-day estimates.
- Tourism Satellite Account: a framework adopted by the United Nations Statistical Commission; its method is set out in UNWTO's TSA: Recommended Methodological Framework 2008.
- TSA structure: ten standard tables; its core table reconciles internal tourism consumption with each product's supply, yielding tourism product ratios, Tourism Direct GVA and Tourism Direct GDP.
- India's TSAs: 2002-03, 2009-10 and 2015-16, compiled by NCAER for the Ministry of Tourism; the third drew domestic spending from the NSS 72nd round (2014-15).
- International Passenger Survey: run by the Indian Statistical Institute (2015-16 round); it supplied inbound and outbound tourism spending for the third TSA.
- Domestic Tourist Visits: compiled by the Ministry of Tourism from State and UT tourism departments, based mainly on monthly returns from hotels and other accommodation establishments.
Practise a UPSC-style question
With reference to the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey of India, consider the following statements:
1. It is conducted by the Ministry of Tourism through the tourism departments of State Governments.
2. It is canvassed as a schedule in a round of the National Sample Survey.
3. Its data on household spending are a main input for preparing the Tourism Satellite Account.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
- (a) 1 and 2 only
- (b) 2 and 3 only
- (c) 1 and 3 only
- (d) 1, 2 and 3
Show the answer
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only
Answer: (b) 2 and 3 only. The survey belongs to the National Statistics Office, not the Ministry of Tourism, which rules out statement 1.
Statement 1: incorrect. The National Statistics Office under MoSPI conducts the survey; the Ministry of Tourism is its main user, for the Tourism Satellite Account.
Statement 2: correct. The 2025-26 survey was Schedule 21.1 of the NSS 80th round, run from July 2025 to June 2026.
Statement 3: correct. MoSPI says the survey mainly serves the Ministry of Tourism's need for domestic tourism spending in the Tourism Satellite Account.
Eliminate: Judge statement 1 first: the survey is run by the NSO under MoSPI, so statement 1 is incorrect. Out: (a), (c), (d).
Trap: Swapped attribution. The Ministry of Tourism uses the survey and prepares the TSA, so it is planted as the survey's conductor.
Remember: DTES: run by the NSO (MoSPI) in NSS rounds; TSA: prepared by the Ministry of Tourism.
More Explainers
- State Legislative Councils: Articles 168-172 and the graduates' and teachers' seats Polity
- Whales and dolphins in Indian waters: legal protection, IUCN status and strandings Environment
- The Aligarh Movement, AMU and the Article 30 minority test Polity
- Environmental clearance by States: SEIAA, SEAC and the EIA Notification, 2006 Environment
- Software vulnerabilities: CVE, CVSS, coordinated disclosure and CERT-In's role Sci-Tech
- Drug trafficking law in India: NDPS Act, PIT-NDPS, NCB and NCORD National
- Choosing the UN Secretary-General: Article 97, UNSC veto and straw polls World & IR
- UN Convention against Torture, and why India has not ratified it Polity
- NavIC: why India's navigation constellation cannot give a standalone position Sci-Tech
- International Energy Agency: membership, 90-day oil stocks and India's status World & IR
- PM Surya Ghar: Muft Bijli Yojana and the rooftop solar subsidy Economy
- HFSS foods: FSSAI's draft limits and front-of-pack warning labels National