What changed in Section I in ISIC Rev. 5?

Section I in ISIC Rev. 5, published by the UN Statistics Division, keeps accommodation and food service as its core, with updated descriptions that reflect short stay platforms, delivery based food service and other modern hospitality forms. Across the whole revision, including section i, there are 22 sections from A to V, 87 divisions, 258 groups and 463 classes, and it was endorsed by the UN Statistical Commission in March 2023. Across Rev. 5, 18 new intermediation classes were added, and arranging accommodation or food delivery through a platform is part of that wider recognition of arranging work. The Rev. 5 publication and national correspondence tables are the authority for any detailed mapping.

What stayed the same while the wording moved on?

The core of Section I did not change its identity. Accommodation and food service remain the field, with short stay lodging on one side and prepared food and drink for immediate consumption on the other. What Rev. 5 did, in ISIC Rev. 5 published by the UN Statistics Division, was refresh the descriptions around that core so that newer ways of offering hospitality fit the text more naturally. Short stay platforms, delivery based food service and other modern hospitality forms are now reflected in updated wording, rather than being squeezed into descriptions written before those models became common. A reader who knows the older structure will therefore recognise the section, while a reader who works with platforms and delivery will find the language closer to current practice.

Why does arranging a stay differ from providing one?

Across Rev. 5, 18 new intermediation classes were added, and arranging accommodation or food delivery through a platform is part of that wider recognition of arranging work. The distinction is simple to state and easy to miss in practice. A platform that lists rooms or arranges food delivery connects a guest with a host, or a diner with a kitchen, but it does not itself provide the room or cook the meal. Providing lodging means offering the stay with guest services. Providing food service means preparing and serving the meal or drink. Arranging means bringing the parties together and handling the booking or the delivery arrangement. Statistics that blurred those roles would overstate who provides hospitality and understate the arranging activity that platforms actually perform.

How do host, platform and guest roles separate in practice?

A host who lists a room through a platform, a platform that arranges the booking, and a guest who stays illustrate three roles that statistics may describe differently. The host provides the short stay, with whatever guest services accompany it. The platform arranges the match between host and guest. The guest buys the stay. Keeping those roles apart helps hospitality statistics reflect who provides lodging and who only arranges it, and it also helps a reader avoid double counting, where the same stay is attributed both to the host and to the platform as if both had provided the room. The same three way split applies to food delivery: a kitchen prepares the meal, a platform arranges the order and delivery, and a diner consumes the meal promptly. Each role has its own description, even when the customer experiences them as a single app journey.

What should a reader do with an older Section I code?

Older codes should not be assumed to map one to one onto Rev. 5, even where the heading looks identical. Updated short stay and platform descriptions, clearer intermediation wording for arranging stays and deliveries, and refined food service channel descriptions including delivery can all shift how a particular business is described. National correspondence tables exist precisely for that mapping work, and they should be consulted alongside the Rev. 5 publication. A reader who carries an old code forward without checking the new description and the correspondence table risks preserving a mapping that the revision intended to change, especially for platform and delivery models that the older text described less clearly.

The list below summarises the changes named in this guide, as orientation only:

• Continued accommodation and food service core
• Updated short stay and platform descriptions
• Clearer intermediation wording for arranging stays and deliveries
• Refined food service channel descriptions including delivery
• Consistency with the wider Rev. 5 structure of 463 classes

If section i offers a heading that fits and a detail that does not, the Rev. 5 publication detail should prevail, and the national institute should be consulted for a formal record.

The code statements on section i lean on the UN Statistics Division classification detail and the ISIC Rev. 5 publication in the frontmatter.

Read this account of Rev. 5 change as background only: it does not reclassify any host, platform, restaurant or delivery service, settle a principal activity, or alter a registration, and anyone who needs a mapped code should take the case to the national statistical institute or business register that holds the record, with the correspondence table in hand.