Definitions of Tourism and Tourists :: Travel, Non-residents

According to Smith (1988), an author of a specialist dictionary on tourism, the word ‘tourist’ was reportedly introduced in 1800 and the word ‘tourism’ in 1811. However, what exactly is tourism? Who are tourists? Regardless of the fact that both terms have now been part of the English language for over two centuries, there is still no universally acknowledged effective definition for either. For over many decades, researchers and practitioners have produced many precise definitions for both ‘tourist’ and ‘tourism’ but no definition of either term has become widely recognised. According to Smith (1988), he suggests that there â€Å"probably never will be a single definition of tourism† as economists, psychologists and geographers perceive certain things about tourism in their field (Smith 1988 as cited in Leiper 1995:3). However, any approach to defining tourism can be useful for the persons proposing it and for those who perc eive the world in the subjective way. In this essay, academic authors such as Krapf and Hunziker (1942), Stear (2005) and McIntosh and Goeldner (1977) each define ‘tourism’ in different methodical approaches. After discussing ‘tourism’, the focus then shifts to ‘tourists’ where again, Stear (2005), Leiper (1979) and Weaver and Lawton (2006), defines ‘tourists’ and its heuristic concepts. One of the first attempts to define tourism was that of two Swiss academics, Professors Hunziker and Krapf of Berne University. They defined tourism in a 1942 study as a complex of environmental impacts: â€Å"the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected to any earning activity.† This definition has been acknowledged by many international associations including the International Association of Scientific Experts on Tourism (AIEST). The advantages of this definition are is acknowledgements of wide-ranging impacts; it bases a very large number of issues that is studied under the name ‘tourism’. Additionally, Krapf and Hunziker’s definition is highly intellectual as they manage to distinguish tourism from migration however; its theory is based on â€Å"travel and stay† making an assumption that this is necessary for tourism, thus preventing day tours. While the definition’s approach is reasonable, the definition is noticeably â€Å"too vague† (Leiper, 1995: 17) as it includes a huge amount of human activity that few thinking individuals would regard as coming within the scope of tourism. Because of their broad definition on tourism, prisoners, hospital patients, boarding students and soldiers at war can easily fit in the definition, thus exposing a major defect.