Defining Tourism properly
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The
World Tourism Organization (WTO), an agency of the United Nations, describes
tourism more generally, in terms which go “beyond the common perception of
tourism as being limited to holiday activity only”. WTO describes tourism in
terms of people “travelling to and staying in places outside their usual
environment for not more than a consecutive year for leisure, business and
other purposes.
When we are uncertain about a
specific word, we resort to the dictionary, whether soft or hard copy. So let’s
try the three most popular dictionaries
- · Cambridge English Dictionary: Tourism is the business of providing services such as transport, places to stay or entertainment for people who are on holiday.
- · Oxford English Dictionary: The commercial organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest.
- · Merrier’s Webster Dictionary: a) The activity of travelling to a place for pleasure b) The business of providing hotels, restaurants, entertainment, etc. for people who are travelling
From the above, we could safely
state that tourism can be viewed from the perspective of business, leisure or
the industry as a whole. In another series of articles, we will ascertain these
three angles holistically.
The WTO proceeds to define the
person involved in tourism-the tourist. “Tourist is a person who stays at least
one night but not more than a year in a foreign country”. Also it goes on to
define the excursionist as “a person who visits a foreign country but doesn’t
stay overnight.
Up next, as earlier promised, the
types of tourism will be exposed. Stay tuned.
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