Tourism

Tourism is defined as travel to a place outside the usual residential environment, involving a stay of at least one night but no more than 1 year, with varying motivations, such as business, pleasure, visits to friends and relatives (VFR), and education. It is one of the world's largest industries. Tourism has long been of interest to geographers, [Page 2855]given its spatial, temporal, and activity patterns and given its major economic and environmental impacts, ranging from the local to the global.

Tourism in Switzerland: Hotel Wetterhorn

Source: Barbara Peacock.

Geographers have been influential in developing conceptual models for explaining tourism development. Some of the most important models are resort morphology, the tourist-historic city, and the tourist area cycle. Douglas Pearce's work on resort morphology has helped explain the ...