How Far is Far Enough? Operationalizing the Concept of “Usual Environment" in Tourism Definitions

• Smith, Stephen L.J. ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Waterloo

     University of Waterloo

     Canadá

     
• Localización: Tourism analysis, ISSN 1083-5423, Vol. 4, Nº. 3-4, 1999, págs. 137-143
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • The World Tourism Organization defines tourism as the activities of persons traveling to and staying in a place outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year and for leisure, business, and other purposes. A core component of this definition, “usual environment," makes explicit the notion that tourism does not include routine travel or travel close to home. Despite the importance of “usual environment" in its definition of tourism, the WTO does not specify how the concept should be operationalized. Instead, statistical agencies are free to decide how this concept should be defined within their own social, political, or economic context. This article reviews some of the potential methods for defining “usual environment," and observes that a distance threshold offers significant advantages. The question then becomes, “what is an appropriate threshold to use for defining tourism?" The history of the Canadian threshold of 80 km is briefly described, with the point being made that the threshold came about more as a matter of compromise than empirical analysis. A recent proposal to change the threshold prompted a review of the merits of the current threshold. The empirical implications of halving the threshold to 40 km or doubling it to 160 km are identified using a domestic household travel survey. The results indicate that cutting the threshold would introduce a large number of low-value, routine trips that do not appear to conform to the spirit of the WTO definition.