Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. International tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments. Between the second half of and the end of tourism numbers declined as a result of a strong economic slowdown see Great Recession , and in consequence of the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus. Global tourism accounts for c. For this reason, many tourist development organizations have begun to focus on sustainable tourism to mitigate the negative effects caused by the growing impact of tourism.
The United Nations World Tourism Organization emphasized these practices by promoting tourism as part of the Sustainable Development Goals , through programs such as the International Year for Sustainable Tourism for Development in Tourism has reached new dimensions with the emerging industry of space tourism , as well as the cruise ship industry. The English-language word tourist was used in [ 11 ] and tourism in In , the League of Nations defined a foreign tourist as "someone traveling abroad for at least twenty-four hours".
Its successor, the United Nations , amended this definition in , by including a maximum stay of six months. In , Hunziker and Kraft defined tourism as "the sum of the phenomena and relationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents, insofar as they do not lead to permanent residence and are not connected with any earning activity.
It includes movements for all purposes. In , the United Nations identified three forms of tourism in its Recommendations on Tourism Statistics : [ 20 ]. Other groupings derived from the above grouping: [ 22 ]. The terms tourism and travel are sometimes used interchangeably. In this context, travel has a similar definition to tourism but implies a more purposeful journey.
The terms tourism and tourist are sometimes used pejoratively, to imply a shallow interest in the cultures or locations visited. By contrast, traveller is often used as a sign of distinction. The sociology of tourism has studied the cultural values underpinning these distinctions and their implications for class relations. There are many varieties of tourism.
