Host communities

through travel and tourism.

Acculturation is also sometimes described as

accommodation or assimilation, particularly

when referring to interaction between and

integration of immigrant or ethnic groups into

receiving resident communities.

Additional holiday (vacation)

Term used in some holiday (vacation) surveys, e.g.,

British National Travel Survey (BNTS), to distinguish

between main holiday (vacation) and others,

when more than one holiday (vacation) is taken

by respondents during the year, an important

trend in most developed countries. See also

holiday (vacation) frequency; holiday

(vacation) propensity, gross.

Arctic tourism Trips

 and visits to destinations within the

Arctic Circle, already significant

in Canada and Scandinavia where road

access is possible. See also Antarctic; Antarctic

tourism; Arctic.

Area Tourism Companies (ATC)

 Area framework of three bodies covering South and

West, Mid and North Wales, with local authority

and tourism industry participation and

operating under contract with the Wales

Tourist Board (WTB) to develop, promote and

coordinate tourism in their respective areas of

the Principality.

Bank Holidays

Days on which banks in the

UK are legally closed, also usually kept as

public holidays. Bank Holidays in England,

Wales, Northern Ireland and the Channel

Islands are: New Year’s Day, Good Friday,

Easter Monday, Early May Holiday (first

Monday in May), Spring Holiday (late

May/early June), Late Summer Holiday (last

Monday in August), Christmas Day, Boxing

Day. In Scotland the public holidays fall on the

same days as in England, except that 2 January

is substituted for Easter Monday and August

Bank Holiday is taken on the first Monday

instead of the Late Summer Holiday. In

Northern Ireland 17 March (St Patrick’s Day),

and in the Channel Islands 9 May (Liberation

Day), are also public holidays.

bank selling rate The rate of exchange

boutique hotel

A relatively new designation

of hotel accommodation, usually small in scale,

privately owned and managed, with the

emphasis on high quality personal service,

comfort, decor and design, often operated in a

distinctive restored building.

Business Class

 A class of transport, usually

airline, service between first and economy

class, i.e., less expensive than the former and

more comfortable than the latter, with various

special amenities. Also known as Club Class on

some airlines.

carrying capacity

 In tourism, the maximum

capacity of a site or area to sustain tourist activity

without deterioration in the quality of the

visitor experience of the environment. Hence,

carrying capacity may be seen to have physical,

social (perceptual) and environmental dimensions

and is normally expressed in terms of a

given number of concurrent users of, e.g., a

historic attraction, beach or resort. The concept

was first applied extensively in tourism in the

1960s when it was also incorporated in the

planning of such major developments as the

Languedoc-Roussillon project in France. It has

assumed an enhanced significance more recently

with an increasing concern for the environment.

cultural tourism

In a narrow sense, special

interest holidays (vacations) essentially

motivated by cultural interests, such as trips

and visits to historical sites and monuments,

museums and galleries, artistic performances

and festivals, as well as lifestyles of communities.

In a broad sense, including also activities

with a cultural content as parts of trips and

visits with a combination of pursuits. See also

wanderlust.

culture shock

The effect sometimes experienced

by travelers when they leave their own

cultural environment and enter a new and

unfamiliar one.

domestic same-day visitor

 For statistical purposes, a domestic visitor who

dose not spend the night in a collective or private

accommodation in the place visited [World

Tourism Organization]. Also known as a

domestic day visitor or excursionist.

domestic tourism expenditure

Defined for statistical purposes as expenditure

received as a direct result of resident visitors travelling

within their country of residence [World Tourism

Organization]. Thus, e.g., the spending of

Australian residents travelling within Australia,

of British residents within Great Britain or

Canadian residents within Canada, all represent

domestic tourism expenditure in those countries.

domestic tourist

 For statistical purposes, a domestic visitor whose

visit is for at least one night and whose

main purpose of visit may be classified under

one of the following three groups:

 (a) leisure and holidays; (b) business

and professional; (c) other tourism purposes

[World Tourism Organization].

Ecosystem

 Ecological system, a system in

which living organisms interact with each

other and with the environment in which they

live. Ecology, the study of the interrelationships,

is of importance in the context of

tourism, which, like most human activities,

may disturb the ecological balance of an area.

An environmental impact assessment (EIA) is

increasingly required in many countries for

certain types of development.

Ecotourism

Open to differences in interpretation

but commonly denoting ecologically

sustainable trips and visits to enjoy and appreciate

nature, which promote conservation,

have low visitor impact, and include involvement

of local populations. It generally focuses

on small-scale activities in well-defined areas,

often under some designated form of protection,

and on retention of the local traditional

economy as a major employer.

educational trips/visits

(a) Trips/visits undertaken primarily for

education purposes, e.g., by school parties.

(b) Familiarization trips or ‘fam trips’.

environmental audit

 A formal evaluation to assess the impact

of a company’s activities on the environment.

A site audit focuses on a location such as a

leisure complex; an operations audit examines

the environmental impact and performance

of a company’s business processes; associate

audits examine the environmental performance

of the company’s partners such as suppliers;

an issue audit assesses potential impact

of emerging issues on the business.

environmental impact assessment (EIA)

A set of procedures to assess in advance the

likely environmental effects of a development

project. Such an assessment is required by law

in many countries for certain types of development,

including the USA and the countries

of the European Union; it is also sometimes

made voluntarily in the absence of a legal

requirement.

ethnic tourism

(a) Visits to places inhabited by indigenous

and other exotic people, to observe their

lifestyles and cultures, e.g., the Assam hill

tribes in India, the Lapps in Northern

Scandinavia, the San Blas Indians in

Panama.

health resort

A resort with health-giving qualities, such as

air, sun and mineral waters, and special

facilities, visited for treatment, convalescence

and relaxation. See also health tourism.

Health tourism

 Also known as health-care

tourism, trips and visits to health resorts and

other destinations whose main purpose is

health treatment, ranging from therapeutic

treatments for various diseases to fitness and

relaxation programmes. Some of these services

are also offered by many hotels and cruise

lines and by such establishments as health

farms.

tourism accommodation

 There is no universally accepted definition

of ‘tourism accommodation’, but it may be

regarded as any facility that regularly (or occasionally)

provides overnight accommodation for

tourists. Tourism accommodation is divided

into two main groups: collective tourism

establishments and private tourism accommodation

[World Tourism Organization].

tourism activity index

Measure of relative

change in tourism activity over time, in which

attendance data at given locations are used as

a measure of tourism level. Also known as

tourism barometer [Huan, T.C. and O’Leary, J.T.

(1999) Measuring Tourism Performance,

Champaign, IL: Sagamore Publishing].

tourism attractiveness index

Measure of tourism potential of different regions,

attributed to G.E. Gearing, W.W. Swart and T. Var.

The approach involves asking a panel of

experts to assign weights to a series of attributes

to reflect their overall importance for

tourism development and asking the experts to

evaluate each region on these attributes [Smith,

S.L.J. (1989) Tourism Analysis: A Handbook,

London: Longman].

tourism generating areas

Areas of origin of tourists, i.e., the areas of

their permanent residence, which represent

the source of demand and the location

of the market, where the major marketing

functions of the tourism industry – promotion,

tour operation, travel retailing – are based.

Large concentrations of population in developed

countries are the main generating areas

of international and domestic tourism.

tourism industry

Term to describe firms and

establishments providing attractions, facilities

and services for tourists. Economic activities

are normally grouped into industries according

to their products. As tourists use a range

of attractions, facilities and services, they are

customers of a number of industries as conventionally

defined. Those significantly dependent

on tourists for their business, such as hotels

and tour operators, are sometimes called

tourism-related industries. To the extent to

which they supply tourist rather than local and

neighborhood markets, they make up a

tourism industry, that part of the economy

which has a common function of meeting

tourist needs.