Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism
What the sector is
Hospitality and tourism covers every business that serves people away from home: hotels and guest houses, restaurants and bars, tour operators, transport providers, attractions, and the public agencies that promote and regulate them. Study the interdependent sectors of the visitor economy, including accommodation, food and beverage, transport, attractions and events, and travel trade. Understand the difference between hospitality (service delivered to guests, often locally) and tourism (travel away from the usual environment for leisure, business or other purposes, usually for less than a year).
Why people travel
Learn the standard motivators: leisure and recreation, visiting friends and relatives (VFR), business and conferences, health, education, and religious pilgrimage. Know that tourism is a demand-driven industry and that disposable income, paid leave, transport cost and safety all affect demand.
Economic and social importance
Be ready to explain tourism's contribution through foreign exchange earnings, employment (direct, indirect and induced), infrastructure development and cultural exchange. Also recognise leakage (money leaving the local economy through imported goods or foreign-owned operators) and seasonality.
Traps in questions
- Confusing a tourist with an excursionist: a same-day visitor does not stay overnight in the place visited.
- Treating a domestic visitor as a foreign visitor; domestic tourism involves residents of the same country.
- Assuming all tourism jobs are direct; a taxi driver serving tourists is direct, a farmer supplying a hotel is indirect.
Rule of thumb
Use the visitor and overnight tests: a qualifying visitor who stays overnight is a tourist; a same-day visitor does not stay overnight. An overnight stay need not last twenty-four hours. Worked example: a family from Gaborone drives to Kasane for three nights, domestic tourists. A businessperson flies in, attends a meeting and leaves the same evening, an excursionist.
Apply the visitor test to a case
Identify the traveller's usual environment, purpose and whether an overnight stay occurs. A visitor who attends a meeting and returns on the same day is a same-day visitor; a qualifying visitor staying overnight is a tourist even if the stay is shorter than twenty-four hours. Do not count regular commuting or permanent migration as tourism merely because a boundary was crossed. The same journey can be outbound from the resident's origin and inbound from the destination's perspective. Explain the reference location before selecting the label.