Tourism Industry Components and Types of Tourism
Domain 2 tests the structure of the tourism industry and the classification of tourism types. You must distinguish components from types and support answers with Indian examples.
Components: the 5 A's
- Attraction: the reason to travel - Kaziranga's rhinos, Majuli's satras, Sivasagar's Ahom monuments.
- Accessibility: roads, rail, air and boats; Guwahati is the main gateway to Assam.
- Accommodation: hotels, resorts, homestays and forest lodges.
- Amenities: food, guides, toilets, interpretation and safety.
- Activities: jeep safari, river cruise, tea-garden walk and cultural performance.
Support sectors include transport, travel trade, food and beverage, attractions, retail and events.
Types of tourism
Leisure, business, MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences, exhibitions), cultural, heritage, religious or pilgrimage, wildlife, nature, adventure, rural, tea, wellness, medical, cruise and special-interest tourism. Types can overlap.
Worked example
A birdwatching group from Guwahati visits Dibru-Saikhowa for three days, stays in a forest lodge and uses a boat and local guide. Components: attraction = birds and wetlands; access = road plus boat; accommodation = lodge; amenities = guide and meals; activities = birdwatching. Type: domestic, wildlife or nature-based, special-interest tourism. It is not automatically ecotourism: ecotourism also requires conservation and community benefit.
Traps
Do not list "hotel" as a type of tourism; it is a component. MICE is business-related, not leisure. Adventure tourism needs a real risk or effort element. A pilgrimage is not the same as cultural tourism, although they overlap. Name Assam examples rather than only generic ones.