Tourism is travel for recreation or leisure purpose. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who "travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of any activity remunerated from within the place visited". Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. Tourism is vital for many countries such as U.A.E, Egypt, Greece, Thailand and many island nations such as The Bahamas, Fiji, Maldives, Seychelles due to the large intake of money for businesses with their goods and services and the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism
The United Nations classified three forms of tourism: Domestic tourism, which involves residents of the given country traveling only within this country; Inbound tourism, involving non-residents traveling in the given country; and Outbound tourism, involving residents traveling in another country. The UN also derived different categories of tourism by combining the 3 basic forms of tourism: Internal tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and inbound tourism; National tourism, which comprises domestic tourism and outbound tourism; and International tourism, which consists of inbound tourism and outbound tourism.
History. European tourism can be said to originate with the medieval pilgrimage. Religious and secular pilgrimages are still prevalent in modern tourism. During the 17th century, it became fashionable in England to undertake a Grand Tour. The sons of the nobility and gentry were sent upon an extended tour of Europe as an educational experience.
