Regional Training Conference for Pilot Study on Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES) and National Household Travel Survey (NHTS)

Jalandhar, June 26, 2025: The National Statistics Office (NSO) regional office Jalandhar, Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India is organising the training conference of Field staff of Punjab (North) region and Directorate of Economic and statistics, Government of Punjab for the Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES) and the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) at the Hotel Sekhon Grand, Namdev Chowk, Jalandhar during June 25-27. These surveys will be conducted as a part of the NSS 80th Round for a period of one year starting from July 2025. The regional training conference is a preparatory training programme prior to the launch of the field work of the surveys
Pallavi Agrawal Srivastva, Joint Director, National Statistics Office (FOD) Jalandhar, inaugurated the conference on June 25, 2025 and in her address, underscored the significance of the NHTS and DTES survey data in the compilation of Tourism Satellite Account and Travel & Tourism Development Index. She emphasised the crucial role of the surveys in evidence based policy making and stressed the need for high quality timely data. She urged the participants to uphold rigorous standards in data collection and processing.
Harbilas, Deputy Director, Regional Office Jalandhar welcomed the esteemed dignitaries and participants to the workshop. In his address, while highlighting the important role played by the field officials in collecting crucial data for the surveys, he urged them to take utmost care at the time of data collection. He emphasised that the success of any survey of this kind would largely depend upon the techniques used by the field officials and the resultant cooperation from the respondents.
The event was attended by the field functionaries from regional office Jalandhar, sub-regional offices Amritsar and Hoshiarpur. Field staff of Directorate of Economic and statistics, Government of Punjab of the concerned districts also participated in the conference.
The Domestic Tourism Expenditure Survey (DTES) aims to collect detailed data on expenditure made by households for domestic overnight trips along with other important information required by the Ministry of Tourism for preparing the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA). In addition, information pertaining to domestic same-day trips will also be collected.
A dedicated National Household Travel Survey (NHTS) will be conducted for the first time in India based on the requirements of Ministry of Railways (MoR). The survey is aimed at collecting information on how, where, and for what purpose people travel within India, which is critical for making informed decisions on infrastructure projects and public transportation systems. The critical data collected in the survey will aid in policy development and infrastructure planning.