Defining Tourism
Tourism is a vastly broad area of interest is complex and often difficult to define, however, it can essentially be described as anything to do with tourists. This can further be defined as the voluntary, temporary, mobility of people outside their normal environment or away from home (Hunt & Layne, 1991; Leiper, 1979).
As a broad and complex discipline; tourism is multidisciplinary in nature as it encompasses a wide range of other areas. These include areas such as geography, marketing, economics, finance, politics, and environmental matters. Not only, does tourism encompass these other areas, but it also brings them together, and in more recent times, has established itself as an independent area of interest because of its sheer size and level of impact it can have.
The ways in which different people and stakeholders perceive tourism is extremely broad in terms of how they perceive tourism to impact them and how they impact tourism. A tourism stakeholder can be described as any group or individual that can affect or is affected by tourism development in an area (Freeman, 1984). Put simply, a tourism stakeholder is anyone who is impacted in any way by any part of tourism.
It is important to gain a wide range of different perspectives to build a holistic and sustainable approach that will allow the most positive outcome to result from tourism and all that it encompasses.
As a broad and complex discipline; tourism is multidisciplinary in nature as it encompasses a wide range of other areas. These include areas such as geography, marketing, economics, finance, politics, and environmental matters. Not only, does tourism encompass these other areas, but it also brings them together, and in more recent times, has established itself as an independent area of interest because of its sheer size and level of impact it can have.
The ways in which different people and stakeholders perceive tourism is extremely broad in terms of how they perceive tourism to impact them and how they impact tourism. A tourism stakeholder can be described as any group or individual that can affect or is affected by tourism development in an area (Freeman, 1984). Put simply, a tourism stakeholder is anyone who is impacted in any way by any part of tourism.
It is important to gain a wide range of different perspectives to build a holistic and sustainable approach that will allow the most positive outcome to result from tourism and all that it encompasses.