From signals to statistics: Measuring same-day visits with MNO data. An Italian use case

Abstract

Mobile Network Operators (MNOs) data integration into official statistics offers new opportunities for measuring tourism flows. Compared with traditional surveys, MNO data provide broader population coverage, finer spatial and temporal detail, and near real-time availability. These features make them well suited to analysing short-duration mobility patterns, such as same-day visits (SDVs). However, transforming MNO data into statistical indicators presents conceptual and methodological challenges. As these data are collected for operational rather than statistical purposes, tourism indicators must be inferred from large volumes of anonymised mobile phone location data. A key issue is ensuring consistency with internationally agreed definitions, particularly the concept of the Usual Environment (UE) from the International Recommendations for Tourism Statistics (IRTS 2008), which distinguishes tourism from routine mobility. To address these issues, the Italian National Institute of Statistics (Istat) conducted an experimental study with Vodafone between 2023 and 2024, using mobile data to estimate domestic SDVs made by residents travelling to Tuscany and Latium during the third quarters of 2022 and 2023. The study outlines methods to approximate the UE, tests, and comparisons made with survey-based estimates, highlighting both the potential and limitations of MNO data for tourism statistics.