Tourism being the largest industry in the world makes it very difficult to define, there is no overall universal agreement as to what the definition should be. The word tourism is a single word to describe the overall collection of a number of other subcategories which come together from world wide direct and indirect activities. Subcategories include the following:
- Staying in a hotel (direct activity).
- Ordering a meal (direct activity).
- Visiting a tourist attraction (direct activity).
- Taking transport (indirect activity).
(Tourism Teacher, 2023).
The combination of direct and indirect subcategories/activities is what then results in the definition becoming hard to reach. There are also different types of tourism, so how can we give tourism a definition when people who travel are undergoing a specific type of tourism, and not just tourism as a whole? Types of tourism include:
- Mass tourism.
- Niche tourism.
- Special interest tourism.
- Domestic tourism.
- Inbound tourism.
- Outbound tourism.
- International tourism.
(Tourism Teacher, 2023).
Despite the subcategories and types of tourism having their own individual and unique definitions, they have some similarities. They all revolve around visitors meaning they contribute to the economy. Without visitors, there would be no economic contributions from these subcategories. (Tourism Teacher, 2023).
Whilst tourism is complex and has no definition, there is a wide definition used by the World Trade Organisation. They explain that “to qualify as a tourist one must travel and remain in a place outside of their usual residential environment for more than one consecutive year for leisure, business or other purposes”. (Tourism Teacher, 2023).
Matheison and Wall, 1982, disagree and claim there is no time frame. They believe that just temporarily being at a destination is considered tourism. (Tourism Teacher, 2023).
The Cambridge Dictionary has quite a simple definition. They state that tourism must involve transport, entertainment and a place to stay as part of an individuals ‘holiday’. (Tourism Teacher, 2023).
Overall, due to there being a number of subcategories and different professional definitions, we simply cannot define tourism in one way.
References
Tourism Teacher (2023). What is tourism? A definition of tourism. Available at: https://tourismteacher.com/definition-of-tourism/ (Accessed 30 November 2024).