Tourism statistics: correcting data inadequacy using coarsened exact matching

Tourism statistics are key sources of information for economic planners, tourism researchers and operators. Still, several cases of data inadequacy and inaccuracy are reported in literature. The aim of this paper is to describe Coarsened Exact Matching, a methodology useful to improve tourism statistics. This method provides tourism statisticians and authorities with a tool to improve the reliability of available sample surveys. Data from a Chilean region are used to illustrate the method. This study contributes to the realm of tourism statistics literature in that it offers a new methodological approach to the creation of accurate and adequate tourism data.