7.108. Administrative data are produced as a by‑product of the administrative functions of a government agency.
7.109. Hence, an administrative system does not exist for the purpose of producing statistics. It is meant to implement the administrative functions of the agency, often in response to legislative requirements or specifications. However, an administrative system can serve as a rich data source, which should be fully exploited.
7.110. Notably, administrative and similar large data sets have a number of advantages over other types of data sources: they are already well established and, in many cases, may be sufficiently large to provide robust subnational data. However, as mentioned above, these administrative data sources are not typically designed to align with statistical concepts of, e.g., tourism. Consequently, extensive work is usually required to enable the derivation of usable statistical information.
7.111. In the case of employment in the tourism industries, countries are encouraged to fully investigate and use the following types of administrative records: the business register (or business demography) maintained by a NSO; the revenue record file; the social protection or social security record file; income tax individual records; the statistical register of employment; and the central register of tour operators and travel agencies.
7.112. In this regards, Delaney and MacFeely conducted a pioneering study, whose results were published in “Employment in the Irish tourism industries: using administrative data to conduct a structural and regional analysis”. The paper contains many useful and informative tables and figures on diverse dimensions of employment in the tourism industries produced based on administrative and similar data sets.