Introduction to Travel and Tourism
Introduction to Travel and Tourism
This domain introduces the basic vocabulary and system of travel and tourism. The exam tests whether you can distinguish travellers, visitors and tourists, and apply the five A's to a real trip.
Core rules and concepts
- Travel is movement between places; tourism is the activity of visitors staying away from home for less than a year for leisure, business or other purposes.
- A visitor is a person travelling outside their usual environment for less than 12 months. An overnight visitor is a tourist; a same-day visitor is an excursionist.
- Domestic tourism is within one's own country; inbound tourism brings foreign visitors in; outbound tourism sends residents abroad.
- Tourism components are often taught as attraction, accessibility, accommodation, amenities and ancillary services. A destination needs all five to work as a product.
- Tourism is an invisible export: inbound visitors spend foreign currency locally, but imported goods and foreign-owned firms create leakage.
Worked example
A family from Jaipur spends five nights in Udaipur visiting palaces and a lake. They are domestic tourists, not excursionists, because they stay overnight outside their usual environment. Their spending supports hotels, guides and transport in Udaipur; if they buy imported food and a foreign-owned hotel repatriates profit, part of the benefit leaks out.
Traps that cost marks
Do not call every traveller a tourist: commuting and same-day shopping trips are not tourism. A business traveller can still be a tourist if the trip includes an overnight stay outside the usual environment. Do not confuse inbound tourism with outbound tourism.