What Defines a Tourist? From theory to destination managers’ understanding
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.1984-4867.v35p1-15Keywords:
Concept, Definition, Notion, Tourism and linguistics, Political agentsAbstract
The concepts of tourism and tourist remain contentious. Tourism was primarily associated with leisure and educational trips. Over time, the term has grown to include trips for business, visiting friends and relatives, health, religion, and other activities. Other aspects that belong to the tourism definition have also been subjects of debate, including the distance between the place of residence and the destination, travel destination managers regarding the concept of a tourist. It specifically seeks insights into how these managers interpret various aspects that define a tourist, including trip and stay duration, the occurrence of overnight stays, the usual environment, and travel motivations. By doing so, this study intends to provide clarity on the meanings and characteristics attributed to this category. To achieve this understanding, questionnaires were administered to 81 tourism destination managers in the Brazilian states of Minas Gerais and Rio de Janeiro. The findings show divergent views on the definition of a tourist and on whether certain travel motivations qualify as tourism. Generally, tourists are usually classified as those whose trips significantly impact the destination, reflecting the evolution of the concept throughout the 20th century. Nonetheless, an ongoing challenge remains in standardizing the meaning of these terms to achieve a more coherent and effective concept.
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