Introduction to Tourism and Tourism Terminology
Domain 1 builds the vocabulary you need for every other unit. The exam tests whether you can define and classify travellers, and use terms precisely in short answers.
Core rules and terms
- Tourism is the temporary movement of people to places outside their usual environment for leisure, business or other purposes, for less than one year.
- A visitor is the umbrella term. It includes tourists (overnight) and same-day visitors, also called excursionists.
- A tourist stays at least one night. A person who commutes daily to work is not a visitor.
- Domestic tourism: residents travelling within their own country. Inbound: non-residents entering a country. Outbound: residents leaving.
- A tourism product is the bundle of attraction, access, accommodation, amenities and activities that creates the visitor experience.
- A DMO (Destination Management Organisation) markets and manages a place; an itinerary is the timed plan of a trip.
Worked example
A family travels from Guwahati to Shillong, stays two nights and returns. They are domestic tourists: same country, overnight stay. If they return the same evening, they are domestic excursionists, not tourists. A French family visiting Kaziranga is an inbound international tourist for India and an outbound tourist for France. The reasoning depends on two tests: did they cross an international border, and did they stay overnight?
Traps that cost marks
Do not call every traveller a tourist. Do not treat excursionists as tourists. "International tourist" requires both border crossing and an overnight stay. Avoid vague answers such as "tourism means travelling"; the definition must include temporary, outside usual environment, and purpose.