United Kingdom - Travel services (% of commercial service imports)

The value for Travel services (% of commercial service imports) in United Kingdom was 10.52 as of 2020. As the graph below shows, over the past 50 years this indicator reached a maximum value of 41.67 in 2000 and a minimum value of 10.52 in 2020.

Definition: Travel services (% of commercial service imports) 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, meals, and transport (within the economy visited).

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

See also:

Year Value
1970 14.69
1971 14.89
1972 16.86
1973 17.52
1974 14.08
1975 16.11
1976 15.82
1977 15.93
1978 19.84
1979 22.48
1980 25.39
1981 27.08
1982 28.18
1983 29.58
1984 30.01
1985 31.00
1986 35.65
1987 39.72
1988 40.82
1989 41.32
1990 41.02
1991 39.79
1992 40.65
1993 40.49
1994 39.86
1995 39.87
1996 37.55
1997 37.79
1998 38.99
1999 41.52
2000 41.67
2001 41.06
2002 41.00
2003 40.64
2004 39.39
2005 38.71
2006 37.01
2007 37.74
2008 36.75
2009 34.34
2010 33.59
2011 31.51
2012 31.59
2013 29.80
2014 29.85
2015 30.50
2016 30.74
2017 29.50
2018 27.22
2019 26.76
2020 10.52

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: Imports