DELINEATING TOURISM: Defining the Usual Environment

The ‘usual environment’ is a central concept in the UNWTO’s definition of tourism. Many countries apply rule-of-thumb distance measures to delineate its boundaries, which is rather problematic, because theoretically, the ‘usual environment’ consists of a selection of places, rather than one space with come concentric boundary. The concept becomes even more arduous in highly urbanized countries, as threshold distance values are hard to determine. Therefore, this paper will report on a exploratory analysis using various data sources. It leads to a more informed choice of spatial demarcation, although it is still inadequate in the light of theoretical considerations. Nevertheless, the approach should be of interest to those working in tourism and tourism statistics in particular.