This document discusses key concepts in tourism and introduces a systems approach to understanding tourism. It defines fundamental concepts like tourism, visitors, tourists and excursionists. It explains why tourism is not considered an industry and introduces the tourism system model, which views tourism as having four interconnected parts: destination, marketing, demand, and travel. The systems approach emphasizes the interdependencies between these parts and between tourism and its surrounding environment.

1. Chapter 2 Tourism Concepts
& Tourism System

2. Learning Objectives
 To identify important terminologies.
 To explain why economists don’t think of
tourism as being an industry.
 To explain the reasons for using a systems
approach for tourism.
 To describe the parts of The Tourism
System & the Tourism System model.

3. Contents
 Some fundamental concepts
 Tourism
 Tourism Industry
 Visitor, tourist, excursionist
 Why use a system approach
 The parts of Tourism System Model

4. FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPTS
What is Tourism
 There is no single definition of tourism that is universally
accepted.
 WTO , Madrid, Spain, is a specialized agency of the United
Nations.
 The World Tourism Organization defines tourism as
“Activities of persons traveling to and staying in places
outside their usual environment for not more than one
consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes
not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from
within the place visited.”

5. Branches of tourism
 Inbound international tourism: visits to a country by
nonresidents of that country.
 Outbound international tourism: visits by the residents of a
country to other countries.
 Domestic tourism: visits by residents within their own
country.
 Internal tourism: domestic + inbound international
Visits by residents and non-residents within a country.
 National tourism: domestic + outbound international
Visits by the residents of a country within their own country
and to other countries.
E.g.. China: Inbound-domestic-outbound

6. AIEST definition
 AIEST stands for International Association of Scientific
Experts in Tourism.
 Hunziker and Krapf, in 1942, defined tourism as "the
totality of the relationship and phenomenon arising from
the travel and stay of strangers, provided that the stay does
not imply the establishment of a permanent residence and
is not connected with a remunerative activities".
 Above definition was then accepted by AIEST as below:
Tourism is the sum of phenomena and relationships arising
from travel and stay of non residents in so far as they do
not lead to permanent residence and are not connected
with any earning activity.
 This definition is widely accepted in China.

7. Tourism course & Disciplines inputs to the tourism field
Sociology
Sociology of
Tourism
Tourism
Studies
Parks and
Recreation

8. Economics
Political science
Agriculture
Marketing
Anthropology
Business
management
psychology
law
ecology
sociology
history
geography
Tourism
studies
Underlying themes

9. What is an Industry
 Well (1989) defines an industry as
“a number of firms that produce similar
goods and services and therefore are in
competition with one another”.
For instance, the steel industry is defined by
the steel products they produce.

10. How about tourism industry?
 Many businesses and other types of tourism organizations offer
complementary rather than competing products and services.
An airline, hotel, restaurant, travel agency, and attraction do not
compete with each other. They complement each other and
combine to offer visitors a satisfying vacation or business trip.
 The input and output can not be clearly identified.
 Besides there is no single industry code for tourism under the
North American Industry Classification System (NAICS)
 Macroeconomists point out that the recognition of tourism as an
industry can lead to double counting because standard industry
classifications fully account for all elements of the economy
without finding it necessary or appropriate to recognize tourism.

11. Tourism industry
 Unlike other industries that are defined by the
products and services they produce (the supply
side), the tourism industry is defined from a
demand side perspective.
A tourism industry supplies products and services
to tourists.
 The Tourism Industry is defined as individuals,
businesses & organizations that are working to
provide product & services (including information)
to tourists.
They include those that work in transportation,
lodging, entertainment and food & beverage.

12. China tourism industry
 Since 1986 tourism in China has been regarded as a
significant industry for the national economy.
 In the year 1986, China placed the tourist industry into
the national plan for social and economic development
for the first time.
 There is growing acceptance of travel and tourism as an
industry or sector of economy which includes
accommodation, travel agents and tour operators (the
travel trade), intercity passenger transport enterprises,
government agencies responsible for tourism programs
and tourism facilities, and major elements of other
businesses in the food service, entertainment, and
recreational fields.

13. Visitor
Visitor
 Tourist
 Excursionist
A visitor is defined as 'any person traveling to a place
other than that of his/her usual environment for less
than twelve months and whose main purpose of trip is
other than the exercise of an activity remunerated from
within the place visited'.

14. Tourist and Excursionist
 Tourist: temporary visitor staying at least 24 hours
in the country visited and the purpose of whose
journey can be classified under one of the
following headings.
a).leisure (creation, holiday, health, study, religion,
and sports)
b).business, family, mission, meeting.
 Excursionist: temporary visitor staying less than 24
hours in the country visited (including travelers on
cruises).
Also called Day Tourist or Day Excursionist.

15. Classification
of Travelers
(1) Tourists in international
technical definitions.
(2) Excursionists in
international technical
definitions.
(3) Travelers whose trips are
shorter than those that
qualify for travel and
tourism; e.g., under 50
miles (80 km) from home.
(4) Students traveling
between home and school
only -- other travel of
students is within scope of
travel and tourism.
(5) All persons moving to a
new place of residence
including all one-way
travelers, such as
emigrants, immigrants,
refugees, domestic
migrants, and nomads.

16. Relationship among
tourism, tourism industry, and tourist
Tourism economic dimension
Tourism {
Supply side ---- tourism industry
Demand side ---- tourists

17. SYSTEM APPROACH
 General system theory was defined by a
biologist, Ludwig von Bertalanffy, as:
A set of elements standing in interrelation
among themselves and with the
environments.
 Tourism system consists of several
interrelated parts working together to
achieve common purposes.

18. The reasons for using a systems
approach for study of tourism
 To emphasize the interdependency in
tourism; the tourism system is like a spider’s
web – touch one part are felt throughout the
system.
For a student beginning to study tourism, it is
important to get “the bigger picture” right
away. The tourism system model framework
provides a more comprehensive view of
tourism: it captures “the big picture”.

19. The reasons for using a systems
approach
 The second reason is because of the open system
nature of tourism.
Tourism system is dynamic and constantly
changing. New concepts are always arriving in
tourism, such as ecotourism, TSA.
 The third reason is the complexity and variety in all
aspect of tourism.
For example, there are thousands of specialized
tours and packages available for travelers today.

21. The Tourism System Model
 Part I: Destination: Planning, developing, and
controlling tourism
 Link 1: The tourism product
 Part II: Marketing: Strategy, planning, promotion,
and distribution
 Link 2: The promotion of travel
 Part III: Demand: The factors influencing the
market
 Link 3: The travel purchase
 Part IV: Travel: The characteristics of travel
 Link 4: The shape of travel

22. Travel and tourism systems
 Tourism process developed by Chau (1977).
He described the tourist as the demand, the travel industry
as the supply, and attractions as the tourist product and
summarized the interrelate process as the subject, means,
and objective of tourism.
 Gunn in his book, tourism planning (1979), referred to a
“tourism fundamental system” involving five components:
tourist, transportation, attractions, services-facilities, and
information-direction.
 Leiper(1979) involved five basic elements in his system:
tourists, generating regions, transit routes, destination
regions, and a tourist industry operating within physical,
cultural, social, economic, political, and technological
environments.

23. The end!
Questions?