What is Tourism?

Definition of Tourism
Mathieson and Wall (1982) created a good working definition of tourism as "the temporary movement of people to destinations outside their normal places of work and residence, the activities undertaken during their stay in those destinations, and the facilities created to cater to their needs."
According to Macintosh and Goeldner (1986) tourism is "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the interaction of tourists, business suppliers, host governments and host communities in the process of attracting and hosting these tourists and other visitors."
Other terms of interest are:
Excurionist: Persons traveling for pleasure in a period less than 24 hours (Macintosh and Goeldner, 1986).
Foreign Tourist: Any person visiting a country, other than that in which he/she usually resides, for a period of at least 24 hours (Committee of Statistical Experts of the League of Nations, 1937).
Travel: The act of moving outside one's home community for business or pleasure but not for commuting or traveling to or from school (Macintosh and Goeldner, 1986).
Visitor: Any person visiting a country other than that in which he/she has his/her usual place of residence, for any reason other than following an occupation remunerated from within the country visited (United Nations Conference on International Travel and Tourism, 1963).

Transportation Systems
The type and availability of transportation will determine travel destinations. The development of accommodations were likewise determined by the development of transportation systems. These systems are listed below.
Dimensions of Tourism
All tourism activities are related to one or more of the following dimensions of tourism.
Attractions: Are the primary motivation for traveling. They may be a primary destination such as Disney World or secondary destination which are interesting places to visit on the way to your primary destination. Most tourist traveling from the east to go to Las Vegas will stopover at the Grand Canyon national Park on the way. Attractions usually focus on natural resources, culture, ethnicity or entertainment.

Natural Resources: Natural resources are the combination of physical features (Yosemite National Park, California), the climate (Vail, Colorado), and the natural beauty of the area (Acadia National Park, Maine). The challenge to managing natural resources based tourism is to preserve the natural resource from the impact of the tourist's.