Tourism Definitions

Tourism is more limited than travel, as it refers to specific types of trips; those that take a traveler outside his/her usual environment for less than a year and for a main purpose other than to be employed by a resident entity in the place visited. Individuals when taking such trips are called visitors. Tourism is therefore a subset of travel and visitors are a subset of travelers both in international and domestic contexts. Accordingly, tourism refers to the activity of visitors. The notion of activity encompasses all that visitors do for a trip or while on a trip. It is not restricted to what could be considered as typical tourism activities, such as sightseeing, etc. Travelling for the purpose of conducting business, for education and training, etc. can also be part of tourism if the conditions that have been set up to define visitors are met.

It is recommended that visitors be classified on the basis of their country of residence. The concept of citizenship is not part of the requirements or definitions of tourism statistics.

A visitor is a traveler taking a trip to a main destination outside his/her usual environment, for less than a year, for any main purpose (business, leisure or other personal purpose) other than to be employed by a resident entity in the country or place visited.

A trip refers to the travel by a person from the time of departure from his usual residence until he/she returns; it thus refers to a round trip. Trips taken by visitors are tourism trips. A tourism trip is characterized by its main destination, among other characteristics (for example, main purpose).

A trip is made up of visits to different places. The term “tourism visit” refers to a stay in a place visited during a tourism trip.

A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a tourist (or overnight visitor), if his/her trip includes an overnight stay in the country or place visited.

A visitor (domestic, inbound or outbound) is classified as a same-day visitor (or excursionist), if he/ she spent less than 24 hours in the country or place visited.

Domestic tourism comprises the activities of a resident visitor within the country of reference, either as part of a domestic tourism trip or part of an outbound tourism trip.

Inbound tourism comprises the activities of a non-resident visitor within the country of reference on an inbound tourism trip.

Outbound tourism comprises the activities of a resident visitor outside the country of reference, either as part of an outbound tourism trip or as part of a domestic tourism trip.

Internal tourism comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident and non-resident visitors within the country of reference as part of domestic or international tourism trips.

International tourism comprises inbound tourism and outbound tourism, hat is to say, the activities of resident visitors outside the country of reference, either as part of domestic or outbound tourism trips and the activities of non-resident visitors within the country of reference on inbound tourism trips.

National tourism comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism, that is to say, the activities of resident visitors within and outside the country of reference, either as part of domestic or outbound tourism trips.

The country of residence is determined according to the center of predominant economic interest. If a person resides (or intends to reside) for more than one year in a given country and has there his/her center of economic interest (for example, where the predominant amount of time is spent), he/she is considered as a resident of this country.

The main destination of a tourism trip is defined as the place central to the decision to take the trip. Consequently, each trip has only one main destination linked to a single purpose. However, a trip may include visits to several places besides the main destination.

A trip that includes multiple stops or visits to other locations beyond the main destination is referred to as secondary destination, and those visits as secondary visits.

Tourist visits to secondary destinations are not included in the national total number of visitors, as this would lead to double-counting. For instance, an Umrah visitor whose main destination is Makkah may also visit Madinah during the same trip, but they are still counted as a single visitor.

The usual environment of an individual, a key concept in tourism, is defined as the geographical area (though not necessarily a contiguous one) within which an individual conducts his/her regular life routine.

The purpose of introducing the concept of usual environment is to exclude from visitors those travelers commuting regularly between their place of usual residence and place of work or study, or frequently visiting places within their current life routine, for instance homes of friends or relatives, shopping centers, religious, healthcare or any other facilities that might be at a substantial distance away or in a different administrative area but are regularly and frequently visited.

The main purpose of a tourism trip is defined as the purpose in the absence of which the trip would not have taken place. Each tourism trip has one and only one main purpose though a visitor can also undertake secondary activities while on his/her trip. The classification of a tourism trip according to its main purpose includes 2 main categories divided into 9 sub-categories:

Tourism expenditure refers to the amount paid for the acquisition of consumption goods and services, as well as valuables, for own use or to give away, for and during tourism trips. It includes expenditures by visitors themselves, as well as expenses that are paid for or reimbursed by others.

Tourism characteristic products are those that satisfy one or both of the following criteria:

The tourism industries comprise all establishments for which the principal activity is a tourism characteristic activity. The term tourism industries is equivalent to the term (Tourism Characteristic Activities).

Tourism characteristic activities are the activities that typically produce tourism characteristic products. The list of tourism characteristic activities includes 10 Internationally comparable activities, plus 2 activities called country specific tourism characteristic activities (to be determined by each country by applying the criteria mentioned in international recommendations, in their own context).

Employment in tourism industries may be measured as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in any of their jobs, as a count of the persons employed in tourism industries in their main job, or as a count of the jobs in tourism industries.

The total gross value added of all establishments belonging to tourism industries, regardless of whether all their output is provided to visitors and the degree of specialization of their production process.

The part of gross value added generated by tourism industries and other industries of the economy that directly serve visitors in response to internal tourism consumption.

The sum of the part of gross value added (at basic prices) generated by all industries in response to internal tourism consumption plus the amount of net taxes on products and imports included within the value of this  expenditure at purchasers’ prices

TSA is a statistical framework that measures the Direct economic contribution of tourism to an economy. It integrates tourism data with national accounts to show tourism’s Direct impact on GDP, employment, investment, and consumption in a way that is comparable with other industries.