Domestic Travel Survey definitions and classifications

Definitions

Key words and concepts used in the Domestic Travel Survey are defined below.

Domestic visitor

Persons residing in a country, who travel to a place within that country outside their usual environment for a period not exceeding 12 months, and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited.

Resident in a country

A person is considered to be a resident in a country if the person has lived for most of the past year (12 months) in that country, or has lived in that country for a shorter period and intends to return within 12 months to live in that country.

Overnight trip

An overnight trip is defined as a trip made in New Zealand, but outside the area in which the respondent usually lives or works day-to-day, which involves a minimum of one night away from home.

Data is collected on trips from which the respondent had returned in the last four weeks, which were less than 12 months long.

Each overnight trip is presented with a Main Destination. The Main Destination is either:

• where the most nights were spent on the trip, or
• the furthest overnight location from the origin of the trip.

For example, a person who stayed a night in the Ruapehu area on the way to Hawke's Bay for 5 nights would be recorded as having one overnight trip to Hawke's Bay.

Overnight visit

An overnight visit is defined as a location where one or more night was spent on an overnight trip.
All Destination data includes every place where the visitor spent one or more night on their trip.

For example, a person who stayed a night in the Ruapehu area on the way to Hawke's Bay for 5 nights would be recorded as having 1 overnight visit to Ruapehu and 1 overnight visit to Hawke's Bay.

Person nights

Person nights, or nights, refers to the number of nights spent away from home on an overnight trip. One person spending 4 nights away from home generates 4 person nights.

Day trip

A day trip is defined as a trip made within 1 day, outside the area in which the respondent usually lives or works day to day, involving travel of at least 40km one way from home, or travel by aeroplane or ferry service.

Data is collected on day trips made within the last 7 days. Each day trip is presented with a Main Destination. The Main Destination is the furthest location visited from the origin of the trip.

For example, a person who visited Kapiti for an hour or more on the way to Wellington would be recorded as having 1 Day Trip to Wellington.

Day visit

A day visit is defined as a place where 1 or more hour was spent during travel outside of the usual environment.

Each day visit is presented with All Destinations. All Destination data includes every place where the visitor spent 1 or more hours on their day trip.

For example, a person who visited Kapiti for an hour or more on the way to Wellington would be recorded as having 1 Day Visit to Kapiti and 1 day visit to Wellington.

Travel sector

For overnight trips, a travel sector is defined as travel between 2 overnight stops. This includes travel from home to the first overnight stop and travel from the last overnight stop to home.

For day trips, a travel sector is defined as travel between stops of at least an hour in duration, or travel between the origin and the main destination.

All places stayed

‘All places stayed’ refers to all places in which the traveller spends a night. A 4-night trip by an individual from Auckland to Taupo in which 1 night is spent in Hamilton and 3 in Taupo comprises:

• 1 overnight trip
• 4 person nights (1 in Hamilton, 3 in Taupo)
• 3 travel sectors (Auckland-Hamilton, Hamilton-Taupo, Taupo-Auckland)
• 1 main destination (Taupo)
• 2 places stayed (Hamilton, Taupo).

Classifications

The document below provides information on some of the groupings or classifications that are used in the Domestic Travel Survey, including:

• geographical classifications
• accommodation classifications
• activities/attractions classifications
• transport classifications
• reasons for travelling and not travelling classifications
• visitor characteristic/demographic classifications.

Domestic Travel Survey classifications [PDF, 28 KB]