A tourist is an individual who travels for the pleasure of traveling, out of curiosity.
“Tourism is the sum of the phenomena and interrelationships arising from the travel and stay of non-residents”, in so far as they do not lead to permanent residence and not connected with earning activity”
Or
“Temporary movement of people to the destinations outside their normal places of work and residence and the activities undertaken, the people met, and the facilities and services used by them during their stay in the destinations to meet their needs.
What is Recreation
Recreation is an activity of leisure, leisure being discretionary time. Recreation activities are done for enjoyment, amusement, and pleasure that are generally considered fun activities. It is any activity carried out during leisure time that recreates or rejuvenates (refresh) the person engaged both mentally and physically for works.
Any activity may be constructive or destructive to the person involved or to his society. Hence, to qualify as a recreation activity, the activity must be a constructive one; not doing any damage to the person involved or his society. According to places, where a recreation activity is carried out, it may be classified as indoor recreation or outdoor recreation. As the names suggest, recreation activities that are carried out inside closed doors are classified as indoor recreation and those conducted in an open environment are referred to as outdoor recreation. Outdoor recreation pursuits are generally carried out during weekend or annual leisure.
To understand how recreation happens, we first need to understand how time is divided among every individual.
Subsistence time:
Subsistence time is the time that is spent on meeting the physiological needs for survival; eg. Sleeping,
refreshing, and eating.
Existence time:
Existence time is the time in which activities necessary to support life are carriedout; eg. Work time, school time.
Leisure time:
Leisure time is the free time available after subtracting the subsistence time and existence from the total time budget. [L= Total Time – (ST+ET)]
It is an unobligated time, during which an individual performs activities that refresh his body and mind. The leisure time is further divided into
1. Daily leisure
2. Weekly leisure
3. Annual leisure.
The daily leisure or unobligated time may come before or after school or work/office. The daily leisure
available to an individual averages about 6 hours per day. It is however fragmented into many small
periods limiting the person to carry out only certain recreation activities.
Weekly leisure is generally termed weekend leisure. It provides an opportunity for participation in those activities that are not feasible during daily leisure. The length of weekly leisure and types of activities performed vary from country to country.
For example, some countries have 6 workdays per week while others have 5 or 4 workdays. Weekend outing with friends and or family is most popular recreation activities performed during this unobligatory period.
Long vacations and holidays are generally termed as annual leisure. It is estimated that by the year 2000, the average annual leisure time will be 4-6 weeks.
It has been also noticed that the total leisure time available to an individual depends upon various socio-cultural, economic, and environmental factors as well as the person’s personal characteristics such as
attitudes, behaviors, age, lifestyle, etc.
Relationship between Tourist, Tourism and Recreation
Tourist, tourism and tourism are interlinked with each other. They contribute for the happening of one another which can be depicted in the following picture:
It depicts that outdoor recreation is generally carried out during weekend and long vacations and tourism is one form several outdoor recreation activities.
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