TOURISM DEFINITION

English: Trakai Island Castle, Lithuania during high tourism season, may 3, 2008. Polski: Zamek w Trokach oblegany przez turystów 3 maja 2008 roku. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We've all made tourism in some time in our life. We know that the activity is associated with leisure, rest and discovering new places, among other issues. But what exactly is tourism?

It can be defined tourism as all the actions a person performs while traveling and overnight at a site different from their usual residence for a consecutive period which is less than one year.

For example: "When I retire, I will focus on touring Europe," "In this town, most people live from tourism," "The mayor expressed his desire to promote tourism to generate wealth."



The history of tourism is extensive. Its origins can be traced to ancient Greece, when thousands of people were traveling to attend the Olympics every four years. Treated as business, tourism comes from the hand of the Englishman Thomas Cook, who organized the first tourist trip in history in 1841 and founded a decade later, the first travel agency Thomas Cook and Son.

Today tourism is one of the most important industries worldwide and promotes trips of all kinds for rest, for cultural, social interest, business or just leisure.

Although tourism activity comes from ancient times, just a few years ago was defined as an economic activity as independent and encompasses a wide range of economic sectors and academic disciplines, to find an absolute definition of the term is somewhat difficult. It can be seen in one form or another according to the appearance or activity from which you want to define.

In the economic sector could be defined as tourism consumption, while a psychologist would conduct an analysis based on tourist behavior. Meanwhile, a geographer offer a definition whose main element is the territory, property and other issues that touch your workspace.

Below are some academic definitions that have been made on tourism:

Burkart and Medlik give an overview on the concept that looks like those short trips and time that people do outside of where they live or work and performing various activities that they used to.

Mathieson and Wall, meanwhile explained that is named the temporary movement of people to places far from their residence for periods less than one year.

According to the World Tourism Organization (WTO) consists of those activities that people do while traveling in environments where it is rare they are, whose aims are to leisure, business or other and last periods of less than one year.


It is possible to distinguish between different types of tourism according to the tastes of travelers and the activities available during your stay.

The shopping tourism is characterized by being organized to go shopping and spaces where travelers can consume buying.

Cultural tourism is centered on visits to museums, exhibitions, and other places appropriate to the place where travelers can learn more about the history and cultural life of the site you visit.

The term rural tourism is any tourism activity that is in a rural, near natural areas, coastal and allow work-related activities in the rural sector. It is a type of tourism as opposed to crowded, which is customary in the coastal cities, and requires an environment supported by endogenous human and environmental surroundings. It is a tourist friendly environment, which attempts to join the rest of tourism activities taking advantage of local resources.

Tourism training aims to provide travelers with knowledge of a particular material, the purpose of their trip.

Gastronomic tourism is aimed at travelers to know the foods native to the place and conduct tastings and cooking activities.

The farmhouse consists of activities in rural areas where tourists stay and puende participate in the activities of the place, working on the restoration of farms and cottages.

Ecotourism is carried out in natural protection means. They often participate in this activity local residents who receive tourists and show them the space. In ecotourism has priority the preservation of nature.

Adventure tourism is a series of activities that take place in a rural setting and designed to provide feelings of discovery, testing the limits of survival of the tourists. It takes place in spaces that have been poorly exploited tourist level.