TOURISTS AND THE VISITORS

Introduction

Tourist is the one who spends at least one night away from home(normal place of living), no matter what the purpose of visit is, and should be away from the exercise of any activity of earning income or generating remuneration.

The origin of the world "Tourist" dated back to the year 1292 (Bhatia 1982). The word tourist is  derived from the latin word "Tornus", which means a tools for describing a circle or turners wheel. According to the Oxford Dictionary, the word tourist was used as early as 1800 A.D. It defines tourists as "The person traveling or visiting a place for recreation" and the word tour is defined as "The journey through a place visiting things of interest".

The International Union of Official Travel Organization (IUOTO) in 1963 AD has purposed the most widely accepted and the technical definition of a tourist and was approved by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) in 1968 AD (Leiper, 1972). It states that - Tourists are those temporary travelers traveling 24 hours away from the home in the place traveled and for what they had traveled can be divided into of the following headings:

1. Leisure, Recreation, Holiday, Health, Study, Religion, Sports and Events etc.
2. Business, Family visit, Special mission, Meetings etc.

Among the various definitions, the most useful and the comprehensive definitions are given by Cohen and Smith. Cohen describes that, "Tourists are those temporary and voluntary travelers, traveling in the expectation of pleasure from the novelty and change experienced on a relatively long and non-recurrent round trip". On the other hand, Smith states that, "Tourists are the temporarily licensed person who voluntarily visits a place away for the purpose of experiencing the change".

According to the Australian economist Herman Van Scheullard, "Tourist can be defined as a person whose movement of operation is mainly economic in nature. Their activity is directly related to the entry, stay and the movement inside or outside the certain country, city or region."

All in all, the above mentioned definitions provide clear justifications regarding the following specific characteristics of tourists:

• Tourist is a person traveling and staying in various destinations which involves- entry, stay and the movement from one place to another or corresponding places.
• Travel to the destination from the origin including the stay and the activities at the destination
• The movement to the destination is of a short term or temporary character, i.e at least 24 hours but not exceeding one consecutive years or period of 12 months
• The purpose of visit is usually other than taking of permanent residence or employment
• The activities involve the economic in nature i.e the expenditure exists but neglects the exercise of earning or income generation