The Changing Meaning of Travel, Tourism and Tourist Definitions

Tourism is a highly complex phenomenon and can be fully understood only by adopting a
multidisciplinary approach (Candela & Figini, 2012). Tourism as a social force and institution is
impacting the life of people and many are associated with the industry directly or indirectly (Mathur,
2011). Concordantly, while tourism causes some changes and transformations in many subject (such
a cross-cultural interaction, free from prejudices, contribution to peace environment etc.), it also
changes in itself. In this study, it is focused on some essential definitions, which are “travel”,
“tourism” and “tourist”, referring to chancing meaning of travel, tourism and tourist.

When looking at classical definitions of tourism, travel and tourist, it is understood that it is
necessary to revise them according to the current changes. In this regard, “travel” refers to the
activity of travelers. A traveller is someone who moves between different geographic locations, for
any purpose and any duration. Travel comprises all journeys from one place to another. It includes all
journeys made by people who enter a country for leisure, to work, reside, study or who just pass
through a country without stopping. “Tourism” means the temporary short-term movement of
people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work, as well as their
activities during their stay at these destinations. It should be noted that all tourism should have some
travel, but not all travel is tourism. “Tourist” is a person who travels to destinations outside his/her
residence and working place, and stays for at least 24 hours, for the purpose of leisure or business.

These definitions are insufficient depending on technological developments. One of the most
important technological developments is virtual reality application. Virtual reality (VR) has given a
contribution in the context of video games, architecture and tourism, but the applications are so vast
and extend to different forms of entertainment, education or education and to other sectors which
enables living experiences with relevance (Guerra et al., 2015). It has been obliged to change
meaning of tourism, travel and tourist definition by virtual reality applications (Hannam et al., 2014).
Because these applications effects on visitor/ tourist experiences (Uriely, 2005; Jung et al., 2016) and
tourism marketing (Huang et al., 2016; Griffin et al., 2017), planning and management,
entertainment, education, accessibility, heritage preservation (Guttentag, 2010), communication and
information flow (Schegg & Stangl, 2017), travel types (Pizarro et al., 2015). In other words, both
tourism demand and supply have continuously changed in parallel with VR technologies. So tourism
researchers and professionals need to redefine tourism, travel and tourist definitions.

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