Maharashtra HSC Tourism & Hospitality Management (Vocational) key terms

Travel away from one's usual environment for leisure, business or other purposes for less than one consecutive year, involving activities and services that support that stay.

A visitor who stays at least one night in a place outside their usual environment, distinguishing them from a same-day visitor who returns home without an overnight stay.

A same-day visitor who travels to a destination and returns without staying overnight, often a day-tripper whose spending is counted separately from overnight tourists.

Travel and stays by residents within their own country, without crossing an international border, forming the largest share of tourism activity in India.

Visits to a country by non-resident visitors, bringing foreign exchange earnings and counted in a nation's tourism receipts and balance of payments.

Travel by a country's residents to destinations outside their own country, representing tourism expenditure that leaves the domestic economy.

The bundle of attractions, transport, accommodation, food, activities and services a visitor purchases as a single experience, assembled from several suppliers rather than one company.

The core elements of the tourism system: attractions, accessibility and transport, accommodation, amenities and ancillary services, often remembered as the five A's of tourism.

A natural, cultural, historical or man-made feature that draws visitors to a place and motivates travel, such as a beach, fort, monument, festival or theme park.

The process by which tourist spending circulates through an economy, generating further income and jobs as businesses and employees respend money locally.

Money in foreign currency received from international visitors, an invisible export that helps a country's balance of payments and is a key economic benefit of tourism.

A business that acts as an intermediary, selling travel products such as tickets, hotel rooms, insurance and visas on behalf of principals and earning commission or service fees.

A company that combines transport, accommodation and activities into package tours, sets prices, takes responsibility for delivery and sells through agents or directly to travellers.

A pre-arranged combination of two or more travel elements such as transport, accommodation and meals, sold at a single inclusive price for one buyer.

A day-by-day plan listing places to be visited, timings, transport, accommodation and activities, used to schedule a tour and inform travellers of what to expect.

A percentage of the sale value paid by a principal such as an airline or hotel to an agent for making the booking, forming a traditional source of travel agency income.

The grading of hotels by star category against criteria such as facilities, services, room size and safety, helping guests compare properties and set expectations.

The percentage of available rooms actually sold over a period, calculated as rooms sold divided by rooms available, a core measure of hotel performance.

Total room revenue divided by the number of rooms sold, showing the average price realised per occupied room and used alongside occupancy to judge hotel yield.

Standard categories of hotel accommodation such as single, double, twin, suite and studio, defined by bed configuration, size and facilities offered to guests.

The published or brochure price of a hotel room before any discount, corporate rate or seasonal reduction is applied, serving as the base for rate negotiation.

The hotel department handling reservations, registration, room assignment, guest information, cashiering and check-out, acting as the main point of contact with guests.

The sequence of stages a guest passes through in a hotel: pre-arrival, arrival, occupancy and departure, each with front office tasks and records.

A booking that holds a room or service for a guest for specified dates, recorded with details of arrival, departure, rate and guarantee status.

Accepting more reservations than rooms available, done deliberately to offset expected no-shows and cancellations, and managed by walking guests to another property.

The arrival procedure that verifies identity, assigns a room and records guest details, and the departure procedure that settles the bill and updates room status.

The hotel department responsible for cleanliness, linen, laundry, room maintenance and public area upkeep, working closely with the front office on room status.

The current condition of a room, such as occupied, vacant and clean, vacant and dirty, or out of order, communicated between housekeeping and front office for room allocation.

Washable fabric items such as bed sheets, pillow covers, towels and tablecloths, tracked through par stock levels and laundered in a rotation cycle.

The delivery of food and drink to guests, covering styles such as table d'hote, a la carte, buffet and room service, plus staffing, cutlery and service sequence.

A printed list of dishes and drinks offered by an establishment, organised by courses or categories and priced either individually or as a fixed meal.

One seated diner served at a meal, used as the unit for counting food and beverage business, forecasting demand and calculating revenue per cover.

The set of controllable elements a tourism business combines to meet customer needs, commonly the seven Ps: product, price, place, promotion, people, process and physical evidence.

Dividing a broad travel market into smaller groups with similar needs, such as families, backpackers or business travellers, so that offers and messages can be tailored.

The assistance and care given to guests before, during and after a purchase, including responsiveness, courtesy and problem resolution, which strongly shapes satisfaction and repeat business.

The actions taken to fix a service failure and restore guest goodwill, such as apologising, correcting the problem and offering compensation, turning complaints into loyalty.

A place with attractions, facilities and access that visitors choose to travel to and stay in, which may be a city, region, coastline or country.

Special-interest travel segments such as eco-tourism, rural tourism, adventure tourism, wellness tourism or heritage tourism, serving smaller groups with specific motivations.

The process of spotting an opportunity, taking financial risk and organising resources to start and run a tourism or hospitality venture such as a homestay, agency or cafe.

A written document setting out a venture's concept, target market, operations, costs, projected revenue and funding needs, used to guide the owner and attract finance.

Jobs created inside tourism businesses such as hotels, airlines, travel agencies and restaurants, as distinct from indirect jobs in supplier and support industries.