The Tourism Industry
The sector that provides rooms for travellers to stay overnight, such as hotels, hostels and guesthouses.
Accommodation
A short organised trip to a place of interest, usually returning the same day.
Excursion
Travel undertaken for pleasure, rest and recreation, such as a beach holiday.
Leisure tourism
The type of organisation, for example VisitBritain or Tourism Australia, responsible for marketing a country as a tourist destination.
National Tourism Organisation (NTO)
A short, memorable phrase that expresses the central idea of a brand or destination.
Slogan
A business that sells travel services such as flights, hotel bookings and tours directly to the public.
Travel agency
An official endorsement in a passport that permits entry to a country for a stated purpose and period.
Visa
A budget traveller who carries luggage in a rucksack, often stays in hostels and travels for an extended period.
Backpacker
A group or chain of islands.
Archipelago
A small printed booklet or folded leaflet that gives information about, and promotes, a destination or service.
Brochure
A company that combines transport, accommodation and other services into a single package and sells it to travellers, usually through travel agents.
Tour operator
A detailed plan of a journey, listing routes, destinations and times.
Itinerary
Travel that involves physical activity in a natural setting and some element of challenge or risk, such as trekking or white-water rafting.
Adventure tourism
Describes a climate or region with very little rainfall; extremely dry.
Arid
A phrase that urges the reader to act immediately, such as “Book now!”
Call to action
A local company that arranges services in a destination, such as transfers, excursions and events, for visiting groups.
Destination management company
The practice of accepting more reservations than there are rooms or seats available.
Overbooking
The acronym for business-event tourism: meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.
MICE
A fertile area in a desert where water is available and vegetation can grow.
Oasis
Deliberate exaggeration used for effect, as in “a paradise on earth”.
Hyperbole
The part of tourist spending that does not stay in the destination’s economy, for example profits sent abroad by foreign-owned hotels.
Economic leakage
A return air ticket on which you fly into one city and return home from a different city.
Open-jaw ticket
Responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment, sustains the well-being of local people and involves interpretation and education.
Ecotourism
A long, narrow, deep sea inlet between steep cliffs, formed by glacial erosion and typical of Norway.
Fjord
The distinctive feature that sets a destination or product apart from its competitors and is emphasised in its promotion.
Unique selling proposition (USP)