| Tourism
is travel for predominantly recreational or leisure purposes,
and also refers to the provision of services in support of
this act. According to the World Tourism Organization, tourists
are people who "travel to and stay in places outside
their usual environment for not more than one consecutive
year for leisure, business and other purposes not related
to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the
place visited". Tourism, however long has incident duration,
has become an extremely popular, global activity. In 2004,
there were over 763 million international tourist arrivals.
As a service industry, tourism
has numerous tangible and intangible elements. Major tangible
elements include transportation, accommodation, and other
components of a hospitality industry.
Major intangible elements relate to the purpose or motivation
for becoming a tourist, such as rest, relaxation, the opportunity
to meet new people and experience other cultures, or simply
to do something different and have an adventure.
Tourism is vital for many countries,
due to the income generated by the consumption of goods and
services by tourists, the taxes levied on businesses in the
tourism industry, and the opportunity for employment and economic
advancement by working in the industry. For these reasons
NGOs and government agencies may sometimes promote a specific
region as a tourist destination, and support the development
of a tourism industry in that area.
The contemporary phenomenon of mass tourism may sometimes
result in overdevelopment, however alternative forms of tourism
such as ecotourism seek to avoid such outcomes by pursuing
tourism in a sustainable way. The terms tourism and travel
are sometimes used interchangeably. In this context travel
has a similar definition to tourism, but implies a more purposeful
journey.
The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively
to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited
by tourists. |
