São Tomé and Principe - Travel services (% of commercial service exports)

The value for Travel services (% of commercial service exports) in São Tomé and Principe was 69.40 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 46 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 97.31 in 2018 and a minimum value of 12.44 in 1978.

Definition: Travel services (% of commercial service exports) covers goods and services acquired from an economy by travelers in that economy for their own use during visits of less than one year for business or personal purposes. Travel services include the goods and services consumed by travelers, such as lodging and meals and transport (within the economy visited).

Source: International Monetary Fund, Balance of Payments Statistics Yearbook and data files.

See also:

Year Value
1974 36.77
1975 60.39
1976 43.04
1977 42.90
1978 12.44
1979 27.08
1980 37.00
1981 41.10
1982 40.98
1983 28.66
1984 51.24
1985 55.17
1986 37.37
1987 70.21
1988 62.86
1989 54.53
1990 57.79
1997 60.57
1998 66.75
1999 76.98
2000 76.12
2001 82.64
2002 82.64
2003 82.64
2004 82.64
2005 82.64
2006 82.64
2007 77.78
2008 82.64
2009 82.59
2010 85.49
2011 88.49
2012 86.02
2013 84.98
2014 80.51
2015 80.20
2016 83.90
2017 92.11
2018 97.31
2019 92.00
2020 69.40

Development Relevance: Trade in services differs from trade in goods because services are produced and consumed at the same time. Thus services to a traveler may be consumed in the producing country (for example, use of a hotel room) but are classified as imports of the traveler's country. In other cases services may be supplied from a remote location; for example, insurance services may be supplied from one location and consumed in another.

Limitations and Exceptions: Balance of payments statistics, the main source of information on international trade in services, have many weaknesses. Disaggregation of important components may be limited and varies considerably across countries. There are inconsistencies in the methods used to report items. And the recording of major flows as net items is common (for example, insurance transactions are often recorded as premiums less claims). These factors contribute to a downward bias in the value of the service trade reported in the balance of payments. Efforts are being made to improve the coverage, quality, and consistency of these data. Eurostat and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, for example, are working together to improve the collection of statistics on trade in services in member countries. Still, difficulties in capturing all the dimensions of international trade in services mean that the record is likely to remain incomplete. Cross-border intrafirm service transactions, which are usually not captured in the balance of payments, have increased in recent years. An example is transnational corporations' use of mainframe computers around the clock for data processing, exploiting time zone differences between their home country and the host countries of their affiliates. Another important dimension of service trade not captured by conventional balance of payments statistics is establishment trade - sales in the host country by foreign affiliates. By contrast, cross-border intrafirm transactions in merchandise may be reported as exports or imports in the balance of payments.

Statistical Concept and Methodology: The balance of payments (BoP) is a double-entry accounting system that shows all flows of goods and services into and out of an economy; all transfers that are the counterpart of real resources or financial claims provided to or by the rest of the world without a quid pro quo, such as donations and grants; and all changes in residents' claims on and liabilities to nonresidents that arise from economic transactions. All transactions are recorded twice - once as a credit and once as a debit. In principle the net balance should be zero, but in practice the accounts often do not balance, requiring inclusion of a balancing item, net errors and omissions. The concepts and definitions underlying the data are based on the sixth edition of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) Balance of Payments Manual (BPM6). Balance of payments data for 2005 onward will be presented in accord with the BPM6. The historical BPM5 data series will end with data for 2008, which can be accessed through the World Development Indicators archives. The complete balance of payments methodology can be accessed through the International Monetary Fund website (www.imf.org/external/np/sta/bop/bop.htm).

Aggregation method: Weighted average

Periodicity: Annual

Classification

Topic: Private Sector & Trade Indicators

Sub-Topic: Exports