International Passenger Survey, 2011

The data cover four subject areas, termed 'Airmiles', 'Alcohol', 'Qregtown' and 'Qcontact'. One file is produced each quarter per subject area, and the dataset updated quarterly. These files can be joined together using the variables YEAR, SERIAL, FLOW and QUARTER.<br>
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The depositor recommends that only expert users who are very familiar with the coding and weighting structures use these data, as limited support is available. Some considerable understanding of the data is required before meaningful analyses can be made; care must be taken when performing time series operations as codes can vary from year to year and not all variables from one year's dataset are used in other years. <br>
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<b>Weighting the IPS</b><br>
ONS advise that the variable 'fweight' included in the 'Qcont' dataset should be applied to get an overall weighted profile. This weight is set consistently over time. Other weights are provided to analyse finer detail but no information is provided in the documentation. ONS is currently reviewing the documentation but in the meantime if users have any detailed weighting questions they should contact ONS at: [e-mail].<br>
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<b>Travelpac data</b><br>
'Travelpac' is a simplified version of the IPS database containing 14 of the most widely used categorical and continuous variables. The categorical variables give counts of trips falling into various categories, and include the year or the quarter. All the variables in Travelpac datasets have been re-coded from the full IPS database. The data are then aggregated to form a highly efficient yet compact data file. The Travelpac dataset contains information gathered from people who were interviewed on the IPS on the return leg of their journey, i.e. mainflow passengers. Furthermore, Travelpac contains data only for a subgroup of these travellers, termed 'tourists'. This selection ensures results from Travelpac will be in keeping with other published overseas travel and tourism information. For further information, see the Dataset User Guide, in the documentation. The Travelpac dataset was added to the Archive's version of the IPS 2011 study in November 2012.<br>
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<b>Edition history</b><br>
The first edition of this study, released in August 2011, included data and documentation for Quarter 1 (Jan-Mar) only. For the second edition (December 2011), data and documentation from Quarter 2 (Apr-Jun) were added to the study. For the third edition (February 2012), data and documentation from Quarter 3 (Jul-Sep) were added. For the fourth edition (May 2012), Quarter 4 (Oct-Dec) data and documentation were added. For the fifth edition (August 2012), the 16 quarterly data files were replaced with four final annual files (one each for Airmiles, Alcohol, Qcontact and Qregtown). The documentation remains unchanged. For the sixth edition (November 2012), the Travelpac version of the IPS 2011 data was added to the study, with updated documentation, and the previous Qcontact file was replaced with a new version. <br>
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The <i>International Passenger Survey</i> (IPS) aims to collect data on both credits and debits for the travel account of the Balance of Payments, provide detailed visit information on overseas visitors to the United Kingdom (UK) for tourism policy, and collect data on international migration.<br>

本数据集涵盖四大主题领域，分别为「航空里程（Airmiles）」、「酒精（Alcohol）」、「Qregtown」与「Qcontact」。每个主题领域每季度生成一份数据文件，数据集亦按季度更新。上述文件可通过变量YEAR、SERIAL、FLOW及QUARTER进行关联合并。

数据提供者建议，仅对编码与加权体系十分熟悉的专业用户方可使用本数据集，因官方提供的技术支持较为有限。开展有价值的分析前，需对数据集具备充分的认知；进行时间序列操作时需格外审慎，因编码规则可能随年份更迭发生变化，且某一年数据集的部分变量无法在其他年份的数据集中共通使用。

**国际乘客调查（International Passenger Survey, IPS）加权说明**

英国国家统计局（Office for National Statistics, ONS）建议，使用「Qcont」数据集中的「fweight」变量以获取整体加权分布。该权重设置在全时段保持一致。另有其他权重用于开展精细化分析，但相关说明未在文档中提供。目前ONS正在修订数据集文档，若用户有加权相关的详细疑问，可通过邮箱[e-mail]联系ONS。

**Travelpac数据集**

Travelpac是IPS数据库的简化版本，包含14个最常用的分类变量与连续变量。分类变量用于统计各类出行场景的频次，涵盖年份与季度维度。Travelpac数据集内的所有变量均从完整IPS数据库中重新编码而来，经聚合处理后形成高效紧凑的数据文件。该数据集的信息来源于在IPS调研中接受返程行程（即主流客流乘客）访谈的受访者。此外，Travelpac仅收录了其中被归类为「游客」的子群体数据，这一筛选规则确保Travelpac的分析结果与其他已发布的海外旅行及旅游相关数据保持一致。如需进一步了解详情，请查阅文档中的《数据集用户指南》。Travelpac数据集于2012年11月被纳入IPS 2011研究的存档版本中。

**版本更新历史**

本研究首个版本于2011年8月发布，仅包含第一季度（1-3月）的数据与文档。2011年12月发布的第二版新增了第二季度（4-6月）的数据与文档。2012年2月发布的第三版新增了第三季度（7-9月）的数据与文档。2012年5月发布的第四版新增了第四季度（10-12月）的数据与文档。2012年8月发布的第五版将原有的16份季度数据文件替换为4份最终年度文件（分别对应航空里程、酒精、Qcontact及Qregtown四大主题），文档内容保持不变。2012年11月发布的第六版新增了IPS 2011数据的Travelpac版本及更新后的文档，并替换了原有的Qcontact文件。

*国际乘客调查（International Passenger Survey, IPS）*旨在为国际收支平衡表中的旅行账户采集借贷双方数据，为旅游政策制定提供赴英海外游客的详细到访信息，并采集国际移民相关数据。