GLOSSARY OF TOURISM TERMS

Tourism: A social, cultural, and economic phenomenon involving the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or business/professional purposes. Visitors, including tourists and excursionists (residents or non-residents), engage in various activities, some of which entail tourism expenditure.

A – Z Glossary:

  • Activity/activities: In tourism statistics, actions and behaviors of people during a trip as consumers.
  • Activity (principal): The primary activity of a producer unit with the highest value added.
  • Activity (productive): The type of production engaged in by a statistical unit, classified by its principal output.
  • Administrative data: Units and data derived from an administrative source for regulatory purposes.
  • Adventure tourism: Tourism involving physical activities in destinations with specific geographic features, potentially associated with perceived risks.
  • Aggregated data: Transformation of unit-level data into quantitative measures for population characteristics.
  • Aggregation: Process transforming microdata into aggregate-level information using functions like count, sum, average, etc.
  • Analytical unit: Entity created by statisticians through splitting or combining observation units.
  • Balance of payments: A statistical statement summarizing transactions between residents and non-residents, including goods, services, income, and financial accounts.
  • Bias: Systematic distortion in statistical results, distinct from random errors.
  • Business and professional purpose (of a tourism trip): Includes activities of self-employed and employees, excluding employer-employee relationships in the visited country.
  • Business tourism: Travel for professional and business purposes, encompassing meetings, incentives, conventions, and exhibitions.
  • Business visitor: A visitor whose main purpose corresponds to business and professional categories.
  • Central Product Classification: A global standard classifying goods and services for various statistical purposes.
  • Census: Complete enumeration of a population or groups at a specific point in time.
  • Coastal, maritime, and inland water tourism: Various tourism activities related to coastal, maritime, and inland water environments.
  • Coherence: Adequacy of statistics for combination in different ways and for various uses.
  • Competitiveness of a tourism destination: Ability of a destination to use resources efficiently for sustainable growth.
  • Consistency: Logical and numerical coherence in statistics.
  • Country of reference: The country for which the measurement is conducted.
  • Country of residence: Determined by the center of predominant economic interest of household members.
  • Country-specific tourism characteristic products and activities: Determined by each country based on IRTS 2008 criteria.
  • Cultural tourism: Tourism motivated by the desire to explore tangible and intangible cultural attractions.
  • Data checking: Verification of correctness conditions and qualification of data.
  • Data collection: Systematic gathering of data for official statistics.
  • Data compilation: Operations to derive new information from data following a set of rules.
  • Data confrontation: Comparing data from different sources to assess coherency and identify differences.
  • Data processing: Operations performed on data by organizations responsible for data collection, tabulation, and manipulation.
  • Data reconciliation: Adjusting data from different sources to reduce differences.
  • Destination (main destination of a trip): The primary place visited, central to the decision to take the trip.
  • Destination management/marketing organization (DMO): Entity coordinating tourism-related activities.
  • Documentation: Processes and procedures for imputation, weighting, confidentiality, suppression rules, outlier treatment, and data capture.
  • Domestic tourism: Activities of a resident visitor within the country of reference.
  • Domestic tourism consumption: Tourism consumption of a resident visitor within the economy of reference.
  • Domestic tourism expenditure: Tourism expenditure of a resident visitor within the economy of reference.
  • Domestic tourism trip: A trip with a main destination within the country of residence.
  • Domestic visitor: A visitor traveling within their country of residence.
  • Durable consumer goods: Goods used repeatedly or continuously over a year or more.
  • Dwellings: The principal dwelling defines the country of residence; other dwellings are secondary.
  • Ecotourism: Nature-based tourism with a responsible attitude toward ecosystem integrity and community well-being.
  • Economic analysis: Examination of tourism’s economic contribution and impact on economic activity.
  • Economic territory: A geographical reference to the country for which measurement is done.
  • Economically active population: All persons furnishing the supply of labor for the production of goods and services.
  • Economy (of reference): Economic agents resident in the country for measurement purposes.
  • Education tourism: Tourism related to academic studies, skill enhancement, school trips, and language courses.
  • Employees: Workers in paid employment.
  • Employer-employee relationship: Agreement between an entity and an individual for remunerated work.
  • Employers: Workers with self-employment jobs who engage others to work for them.
  • Employment: Persons in paid employment or self-employment during a specified period.
  • Employment in tourism industries: Measurement of persons or jobs in tourism industries.
  • Enterprise: Institutional unit engaged in the production of goods and/or services.
  • Establishment: Part of an enterprise where a single productive activity is carried out.
  • Estimation: Inference about unknown population values from incomplete data.
  • Exports of goods and services: Sales, barter, or gifts of goods and services from residents to non-residents.
  • Frame: List or specification of units defining a population to be enumerated or sampled.
  • Forms of tourism: Basic forms include domestic, inbound, and outbound tourism.

Glossary of Tourism

  • Gastronomy tourism: Tourism linked with food, culinary experiences, and related activities.
  • Goods: Physical, produced objects with demand, ownership rights, and transferability.
  • Gross fixed capital formation: Value of acquisitions less disposals of fixed assets.
  • Gross margin: Difference between the value at which intermediated service is sold and accrued to the provider.
  • Gross value added: Value of output less the value of intermediate consumption.
  • Gross value added of tourism industries: Total value added of establishments in tourism industries.
  • Grossing up: Transforming micro-data from samples into aggregate-level information representative of the target population.
  • Health tourism: Tourism contributes to physical, mental, and/or spiritual health through medical and wellness-based activities.
  • Imputation: Procedure for entering a value for a missing or unusable data item.
  • Inbound tourism: Activities of a non-resident visitor within the country of reference.
  • Inbound tourism consumption: Tourism consumption of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference.
  • Inbound tourism expenditure: Tourism expenditure of a non-resident visitor within the economy of reference.
  • Innovation in tourism: Introduction of new or improved components to enhance tourism competitiveness and sustainability.
  • Institutional sector: Aggregation of institutional units based on type of producer, principal activity, and function.
  • Institutional unit: Elementary economic decision-making center characterized by behavior uniformity and decision-making autonomy.
  • Intermediate consumption: Value of goods and services consumed as inputs in the production process.
  • Internal tourism: Comprises domestic and inbound tourism activities within the country of reference.
  • Internal Tourism Consumption: The sum of tourism consumption by both resident and non-resident visitors within the economy of reference, including domestic and inbound tourism consumption.
  • Internal Tourism Expenditure: The total tourism expenditure within the economy, combining domestic and inbound tourism expenditure.
  • International Standard Industrial Classification: A globally recognized system for classifying economic activities based on agreed concepts, definitions, and rules.
  • International Tourism: Comprising inbound and outbound tourism, involving activities of both resident and non-resident visitors.
  • International Visitor: A traveler qualifying as international if on a tourism trip and either a non-resident in the country of reference or a resident traveling outside of it.

Glossary of Tourism

  • Job: Defined by an agreement between an employee and employer, including self-employed individuals.
  • Measurement Error: Error in reading, calculating, or recording numerical values.
  • Medical Tourism: Tourism involving evidence-based medical resources and services.
  • Meetings Industry: Business/professional trips, further categorized as attending meetings, conferences, or other business purposes.
  • Metadata: Data describing and defining other data and processes.
  • Microdata: Non-aggregated observations of characteristics of individual units.
  • Mirror Statistics: Used for bilateral comparisons of trade flows to detect asymmetries in statistics.
  • Mountain Tourism: Tourism activities in mountainous areas with distinctive characteristics, including outdoor leisure and sports.
  • National Tourism: Comprising domestic and outbound tourism activities of resident visitors.
  • National Tourism Consumption: Tourism consumption by resident visitors within and outside the economy of reference.
  • National Tourism Expenditure: All tourism expenditure of resident visitors within and outside the economy of reference.
  • Nationality: Different from the concept of “country of residence” for a traveler.
  • Non-Monetary Indicators: Data measured in non-monetary units, is essential for comprehensive analysis.
  • Observation Unit: Entity on which information is received and statistics are compiled.
  • Outbound Tourism: Activities of a resident visitor outside the country of reference.
  • Outbound Tourism Consumption: Tourism consumption of a resident visitor outside the economy of reference.
  • Outbound Tourism Expenditure: Tourism expenditure of a resident visitor outside the economy of reference.
  • Output: Goods and services produced by an establishment, excluding certain values.
  • Pilot Survey: A test survey to check questionnaire validity and identify potential errors.
  • Place of Usual Residence: Geographical place where a person usually resides.
  • Probability Sample: A sample selected based on the theory of probability.
  • Production Account: Records the activity of producing goods and services as per the System of National Accounts.
  • Production: Economic activity using inputs to produce outputs of goods or services.
  • Purpose of a Tourism Trip (Main): The primary purpose defines the necessity of a tourism trip.
  • Quality of a Tourism Destination: Result of satisfying tourism product and service needs, along with ethical and environmental considerations.
  • Questionnaire and Questionnaire Design: A set of questions designed to elicit information, and the design of those questions.
  • Reference Period: The period to which measured observations refer.
  • Relevance: The degree to which statistics meet users’ needs.
  • Reliability: Closeness of initial and subsequent estimated values.
  • Reporting Unit: The unit supplying data for a survey, which may or may not be the observation unit.
  • Residents/Non-Residents: Individuals with predominant economic interests within or outside a country’s economic territory.
  • Response and Non-Response: Potential errors arising from survey responses or lack thereof.
  • Rural Tourism: Tourism activities in non-urban areas are characterized by low population density and traditional lifestyle.
  • Same-Day Visitor (or Excursionist): A visitor without an overnight stay during a trip.
  • Sample: A subset of a frame selected based on a known probability of selection.
  • Sample Survey: A survey conducted using a sampling method.
  • Sampling Error: The part of the difference between a population value and its estimate due to sampling.
  • Satellite Accounts: Internal and external satellite accounts, exploring specific areas within the System of National Accounts.
  • SDMX (Statistical Data and Metadata Exchange): A set of standards for exchanging statistical data and metadata.
  • Seasonal Adjustment: A statistical technique to remove seasonal influences from a series.
  • Self-Employment Job: Jobs where remuneration depends on profits from produced goods or services.
  • Self-Employed with Paid Employees: Classified as employers among self-employed individuals.
  • Self-Employed without Employees: Classified as own-account workers among self-employed individuals.
  • Services: Results of production activities changing consuming units’ conditions or facilitating product or financial asset exchange.
  • Social Transfers in Kind: Goods and services provided by the government and non-profit institutions to households.
  • Sports Tourism: Tourism involving observation or active participation in sporting events.
  • Standard Classification: Classifications following prescribed rules and widely accepted.
  • Statistical Error: The unknown difference between a retained value and the true value.
  • Statistical Indicator: A data element representing statistical data for a specified time, place, and characteristics.
  • Statistical Metadata: Data describing statistical data.
  • Statistical Unit: Entity for which information is sought and about which statistics are compiled.
  • Survey: An investigation into the characteristics of a population using data collected from a sample.
  • System of National Accounts: Internationally agreed standards for compiling economic activity measures.

Glossary of Tourism

  • Total Tourism Internal Demand: The sum of internal tourism consumption, tourism gross fixed capital formation, and tourism collective consumption.
  • Tourism: The activity of visitors, encompassing various purposes and durations.
  • Tourism Characteristic Activities: Activities typically produce tourism-characteristic products.
  • Tourism Characteristic Products: Products significant in tourism expenditure or supply within the economy.
  • Tourism Connected Products: Recognized for tourism analysis but not strongly linked to tourism worldwide.
  • Tourism Consumption: Similar to tourism expenditure but includes associated services estimated from different sources.
  • Tourism Destination: A physical space with products, services, and activities for visitor stays.
  • Tourism Direct Gross Domestic Product: The sum of gross value added and net taxes on products and imports from internal tourism consumption.
  • Tourism Direct Gross Value Added: Part of gross value added is generated by tourism industries serving visitors.
  • Tourism Expenditure: Amount paid for goods, services, and valuables during tourism trips.
  • Tourism Industries: Establishments for which the principal activity is a tourism characteristic activity.
  • Tourism Product: A combination of tangible and intangible elements providing a visitor experience.
  • Tourism Ratio: The ratio between the total value of tourism share and the total value of the corresponding variable in the Tourism Satellite Account.
  • Tourism Satellite Account: A framework for presenting economic data related to tourism, consisting of 10 summary tables.
  • Tourism Satellite Account Aggregates: Recommended indicators representing the size of tourism in an economy.
  • Tourism Sector: Production units providing goods and services demanded by visitors.
  • Tourism Share: Share of tourism consumption in each component of supply.
  • Tourism Single-Purpose Consumer Durable Goods: Durable goods used exclusively during tourism trips.
  • Tourism Trip: A trip taken by a visitor, involving visits to different places.
  • Tourist (or Overnight Visitor): A visitor classified as a tourist if the trip includes an overnight stay.
  • Tourism Value Chain: A sequence of primary and support activities fundamental to the tourism sector’s performance.
  • Travel / Traveller: Movement between geographic locations by an individual, encompassing any purpose and duration.
  • Travel Group: Individuals or parties traveling together, such as on a package tour.
  • Travel Item (in Balance of Payments): Refers to goods and services exchanged during visits to or from an economy. Credits cover items acquired for personal use or gifting by non-residents, while debits cover items acquired from other economies by residents
  • Travel Party: A group of visitors traveling together, pooling their expenditures during the trip.
  • Trip: Encompasses the travel period from departure to return, representing a round trip. Tourism trips are those taken by visitors.
  • Urban/City Tourism: Tourism activity occurring in urban spaces with non-agricultural economies, offering diverse cultural, architectural, technological, and natural experiences.
  • Usual Environment: Geographical area where an individual conducts regular life routines, a crucial concept in tourism.
  • Usual Residence: Geographical place where an individual usually resides.
  • Vacation Home: Secondary dwelling used mainly for recreation or leisure purposes.
  • Valuables: Produced goods of considerable value held as stores of value over time.
  • Visit A component of a trip involving stays in different places. “Tourism visit” refers to stays during a tourism trip.
  • Visitor: A traveler going to a main destination outside their usual environment for a year or less, excluding employment. Classified as a tourist (overnight stay) or same-day visitor (excursionist).
  • Wellness Tourism: Tourism focuses on enhancing physical, mental, emotional, occupational, intellectual, and spiritual aspects, promoting preventive and lifestyle-enhancing activities.