Definitions of Tourism Essay

holidaymakerry is a booming industry and a driving force in positive economical, ecological, sustainable, social and cultural developments in several countries around the globe. Its complex nature requires sophisticated focusing in order to reach its full potential. Most people possess an intuitive and introductory catch of phaetonry, which focuses on an image of people travelling for recreational purposes, however, tourism, goes far beyond this simplistic view. According to Stear (2005), the knowledge domain of studying tourism has an apparent lack of substance when it comes to be the basic terms tourism and touring car.Although the concept of tourism itself has been around for many centuries, the academic study of tourism in the tertiary educational sector is a recent development. There is no single explanation of tourism to which every atomic number 53 adheres. Many definitions live been used over the years, some of which are universal and foot be applied to any situat ion, temporary hookup new(prenominal)s fulfil a specific purpose. This essay aims to define who exactly a tourist is and what the term tourism means through technical and heuristic definitions from articles written by Stear (2005), Dickman (1997), and McIntosh et al (1995).Throughout the essay definitions from organisations such(prenominal) as the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) will also be drawn upon. The ambiguity of two seemingly simplistic concepts in theory who a tourist is and what tourism entails will be discussed through a range of academic articles, which will address and highlight the strengths, weaknesses and differences between them. The foci and boundaries of each definition will be determined in order to assess their effectiveness. Whilst each definition is unique in their own right, there are also many similarities, which can be noted.Weaver (2010) states that the definition of tourism is dependent on the definition of the tourist and when de fining whom exactly is a tourist, individuals must concurrently meet certain spatial, temporal and purposive criteria, which will be discussed below. First and fore more or less, Stear (2005) defines tourism as Tourism is travel and temporary stay, involving at least bingle night external from the orbit of a some peerlesss usual home that is under absentn with the major expectation of satisfying leisure needs that are sensed as being more njoyably able to be satisfied by being at interposes worldwide of, and qualitatively diametric to, the home region (Stear 2005, pg. 8).Stear also has a clear definition of a tourist, which he refers to as A tourist is a person engaging in activities directly associated with present or future travel and temporary stay that involves at least one night away from the region of their usual home that is undertaken with the major expectation of satisfying leisure needs that are perceived as being more enjoyably able to be satisfied by places o utside of, and qualitatively different to, the home region. (Stear 2005, pg. 11) A clear fault of Stears heuristic definitions of tourism and tourist is the limitation or restriction of the time intent of at least one night away, in which Stear fails to take into account the temporal element of tourism. The notion of how long, if any time at alone, that must be fatigued away from ones usual home is an aspect, which is not uniform amongst definitions of tourism. Another weakness of Stears definitions is the limitation of the region of a persons usual home, which implies that physically moving away from your home would make you a tourist.According to the UNWTO (cited in Weaver, 2010), for an individual to qualify as a tourist travel must occur beyond the individuals usual surroundings. The spatial limitation of tourism as discussed by Weaver (2010) is unclear in this instance as an individual who lives in Sydney but stays in Canberra during the week for work would then be conside red a tourist under this definition. Whilst Stears (2005) definition states a minimum stay requirement to be considered a tourist, it does not state a maximum timeframe, unlike that of other definitions, which clearly state a maximum period of time before someone loses the title of tourist.The UNWTO (1995) provides a more technical definition and defines tourism as an individual travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes. This definition is broader in scope compared to Stears (2005), which specifies that an individual who travels is scarcely a tourist when their travel is undertaken with the major expectation of satisfying leisure needs. The UNWTO definition (cited in Weaver, 2010) is complemented by Dickmans (1997, pg. 7) who identifies a tourist as a visitor who travels to a place utside his/her usual environment for at least one night but no more than six months ( domestic ) or one year (international) and whose main purpose of visit is other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited and tourism as a non-essential activity, or one that is predominantly related to leisure activities (Dickman, 1997 pg. 7). Compared to Stears (2005) definition of tourism, Dickmans (1997) heuristic definition is very brief and extremely vague as spatial relevance and time period are both not addressed.Furthermore, Dickmans (1997) definition is limited as it wholly refers to the activity side of tourism whereas Leiper (2004) discusses a basic tourism system involving the tourist, the generating region, the transit route, the destination and the causa in between. Despite this limitation, a major strength of Dickmans (1997) definition is that it defines and takes into consideration the differences between domestic and international tourists.This semblance has also been addressed by Weaver (2010) who declares that a domestic tourist is one that travels within their own country of residence, whilst an international tourist travels outside their usual country of residence. The third and last authors McIntosh et al. (1995) describes tourism as the entire world industry of travel, hotels, transportations, and all other shares, including promotion, that serves the needs and wants of travellers. Tourism at once has been given new meaning and is primary a term of economics referring to the industry.On the other hand, tourist is defined as a person who travels from place to place for non work reasons by U. N. definition, a tourist is someone who stays for more than one night and less than a year. Business and convening travel is included. This thinking is dominated by balance-of-trade concepts. Military personnel, diplomats, immigrants and resident students are not tourists (McIntosh et al. , 1995). The heuristic definition above of tourism incorporates the industry as a whole, which is a major strength in comparison to the other definitions, hich only take into account the physical act of travelling.The tourism industry is not identifiable as a standard industry but is rather an amalgamation of parts of other schematic industries such as retail, hospitality, accommodation, entertainment and transport (Weaver, 2010). The incorporation of tourism as an industry takes on a different approach to defining tourism and makes finding a clarified and universal meaning for tourism and tourist nevertheless more complicated. McIntosh et al. 1995) refer to the tourist in a very specific musical mode including different types of tourists such as business tourists, which is a strong point, as a tourist cant be just defined in one aspect.According to Weaver (2010), a basic tourist criterion concerns travel purpose which is dominated by three major categories leisure and recreation, visit friends and relative and business. Compared to Stear (2005) and Dickmans (1997) narrow definitions, McIntosh et al. (1995) go for a much broader, flexible view on defining tourism and the tourist. In both definitions of tourist Dickman (1997) and McIntosh et al. 1995) describe an individual moving out of their usual environment, which is considered a key element in the definition. Weaver (2010) supports this definition in his discussion of fulfilling the spatial component in order to be considered a tourist. Whilst this is considered a highly subjective concept, many tourism bodies train minimum distance thresholds, which serve the useful purpose of differentiating those who bring outside revenue into the local country from those who circulate revenue internally (Weaver, 2010, pg. 22-23).When reviewing the definition by McIntosh et al. 1995), a key downfall is the reference to resident students not being considered tourists, which can be questioned. An international student may wish to travel afield first to experience the culture of the country they plan on studying in, however under this definiti on, even if they wish to take part in and visit tourist attractions which are recreational and leisure found they arent considered tourists. Most people do not intuitively associate study or pro forma education with tourism however it is considered a qualifying criterion by the UNWTO.In Australia alone, in 2007-08 international students accounted for around 7% of all inbound arrivals (Weaver, 2010, pg. 29). In conclusion, the complicated task of defining two simple terms tourism and tourist has been made somewhat clearer through the definitions provided by Stear (2005), Dickman (1997) and McIntosh et al. (1995). Whilst all three authors have different perspectives on how to define these terms, they also have a few aspects that seem to cross over.Considering all the definitions by the three authors Stear (2005), Dickman (1997) and McIntosh et al. 1995) it is hard to argue which definition is more just and accurate than the other as they all have their strengths and weaknesses. From the research conducted, Stears (2005) definition of a tourist is the most flexible and applicable in the context of todays society however Dickmans (1997) definition of tourism is most accurate as it incorporates the entire tourism industry and not just the physical act of traveling. Ultimately, tourist and tourism are indefinable as we all have our own personal views and perspectives on which definitions flare-up the context of the situation.