Find six academic definitions for tourism, tourist or travel. Discuss each of these six definitions and explain the merits and efficiencies of each one, making connections with the points raised by Leiper (1979) where possible. Then provide an overall discussion about which definition is best and for what reason/s. IntroductionSix definitions for the term Tourism were found from a variety of academic references, these being textbook and journal articles. They are discussed in terms of their merits and deficiencies, and then any connections with the points raised by Leiper (1979). Tourism & Tourist Definition IdentificationThe six definitions are below, with relevant discussion and connection with Leiper (1979) following; 1.
“…tourism should be defined conceptually as those aspects of leisure-time behaviour and their consequences which occur as a result of temporary trips away from the home environment and which are motivated exclusively by a concern for recreation matters.” (Heeley, 1980) 2. “…tourist as someone travelling for any purpose except commuting to and from work…” [ (Hunt & Layne, 1991) ] 3. “…Tourism appears to be becoming an acceptable term to singularly describe the activity of people taking trips away from home and the industry which has developed in response to this activity.
” [ (Hunt & Layne, 1991) ] 4. “The…most popular way of defining tourist was by the purpose of the travel, with pleasure or vacation being prevalent terms, although specific types of purposes were also stated, such as “visiting friends and relatives,” “shopping,” “attending an event or attraction,” or “other than commercial business.” Whether respondents considered a business person a tourist is debatable, as some reported they were tourists and some reported that they were not.” [ (Masberg, 1998) ] 5. “The definition of tourism includes three common elements:1.
Movement of people between two or more places (origin and destination)2. Length of time of movement (temporary)3. Purpose” [ (Hudman & Jackson, 2003) ] 6. “Tourists are temporary visitors staying over 24 hours in the country visited, whose journey falls into one of the following categories: leisure, recreation, holiday, sport, health, study religion: or business, family, friends, mission, meetings.
” [ (Hudman & Jackson, 2003) ]Definition discussions and relevance to Leiper (1979) 1. This definition of tourism clearly identifies that there are industrial impacts, and does not merely rely on the behaviour of the tourist to define tourism. It identifies that tourist (the behavioural portion) can influence the destination region; it does not however address the manner by which the influence is realised. Leiper’s Tourist System does form a much stronger, persuasive definition of tourism as it does represent the influence, through the industrialisation characteristics. 2. The generalisation of this definition of a tourist means that nearly any person who enters or lives in a region or town could be considered a tourist.
A resident travelling to the local shopping centre to undertake the weekly groceries would be considered a tourist under this definition. This is simply not an acceptable definition of a tourist and it would be near impossible to delineate, or make any assumptions about a tourist or tourism in general using this definition of a tourist.3. Again this is a much generalised definition of a tourist. It does however consider the industrial aspects as discussed by Leiper (1979) and which forms part of his holistic definition of ‘The Tourist System’. Again is serves very little purpose on an academic sense, although it does have greater specificity in terms of whom the definition ‘fits’.
It at least considers that a person must be away from home, but does not provide any substantial support to other functions of the tourist.4. This definition of a tourist is actual quite functional in terms of being able to clearly identify and therefore gather statistics for analysis. This does consider “behavioural” aspects and supports the analysis of this function of Leiper (1979) Tourism System.5. This definition covers the ‘technical definition’ of tourism, allowing for the statistical aspects as discussed by Leiper (1979).
It covers the three elements of the standard internal definition: distance travelled, duration and purpose. It supports and allows a clear definition for statistical purposes but has limited relevance to business related discussion in terms of any economic or business impacts that may result from the persons undertaking the activity as defined. Similarly Leiper (1979) has issue with this purely statistical approach to defining tourism as it does not consider the industrial aspects that result from tourism and the tourist. 6.
The specificity of this definition of a tourist supports only the data gathering for a particular purpose. It does not meet the standard international ‘technical’ definition of a tourist as defined in the journal article nor does it delineate a tourist from a traveller as Leiper (1979) requires in defining a tourist. It would be functional for use within a specific environment and a specific use, but it has little purpose in academic definitions or a definition for general purpose.
