Travel accounts

In the Balance of Payments (BOP), travel covers primarily the goods and services acquired from an economy by a traveller during visits of less than one year in that economy. It includes the goods and services purchased by, or on behalf of, the traveller or provided without a quid quo pro for the traveller to use or give away. Included are payments made for goods and services in advance or afterwards. Excluded is the international carriage of travellers, which is covered (in the BOP) in passenger services under transportation (cf. the general definition of Tourism expenditure).

As an item in the BOP, Travel accounts indicate the ratio between the receipts and expenditure of international tourism of a given country. The balance is positive when receipts from non-resident tourists (credit) are bigger than the expenditure of resident tourists abroad (debit). The balance is negative when debit exceeds credit.