Essential Tourism Vocabulary: Definitions and Examples

Essential Tourism Vocabulary

TOUR (The Japanese group wish to travel around Europe for two weeks.) (To travel to different places in the same journey.) (The program includes a guided tour around the Kennedy Center.)

TEND (To be likely to happen.) (The Europeans tend to stay longer in Hawaii than others.)

PROMOTE/PROMOTION (To help something to develop or increase.) (Our latest promotion of package holidays.)

CONSULTANT (Someone whose job is to look after or help customers in a public place.) (The travel consultant was really helpful with advice for our trip.)

SALE (Point of sale)

COSTING (The process of calculating the cost of a future business activity or product.) (The tour operator had to calculate the costing of the package holiday to France.)

DEMAND (The need or desire that people have.) (To ask for something with authority.) (I demand to see the manager now; I will not take a “no” for an answer.) (Like every industry, tourism is based on supply and demand.)

DESTINATION (The place that someone or something is going to.) (Rome is a very important destination.)

RESORT (A place where many people go for recreation or vacation.) (One type of sand and sun tourism is to go to a holiday resort.)

ATTRACTION (Something interesting or enjoyable.) (The package holiday that we reserved included several attractions.)

SUPPLIER (A company or person that provides a particular product.) (The company Travel Inc. is a major supplier.)

LAUNCH (Journalists have been invited to the launch of the tour operator's own product.) (Beginning, start of something.) (To start, to initiate something.) (They have decided to launch a new advertising campaign to boost sales.)

SURVEY (A set of questions that you ask a large number of people.) (The survey revealed that customers were not satisfied with room service.)

BROCHURE (A brochure gives plenty of information about a specific tourist destination.) (A thin book or document which gives information.)

SECOND (Second to none.) (Expression used to say that something is of top quality.)

BOOM (To progress or increase quickly.) (A quick increase of business activity.) (The boom in eco-tourism.) (The Chinese market will continue to boom over the next few years.)

INTANGIBLE (Intangible product.) (You can't see or touch it, for example, an idea or a service.)

ACCOMMODATION (A place for someone to stay, live, or work.) (I thought our accommodation was really luxurious. There was plenty of space.)

MARKET (To sell, to offer a product for sale.) (In order to market the destination, we need to identify its target audience.) (The number of people who want to buy a product or the type of people.) (The market for cruises aimed at the under-40s is growing.)

TANGIBLE (Tangible product.) (You can touch it and see it, for example, an object such as a car or a hotel building.)

PRICING (Pricing policy.) (The prices of goods and services in relation to each other and those of competitors.)

WINDING (Winding road.) (A road which follows a route which turns frequently.)

PACKAGE (To combine or offer related elements as one unit.) (The role of a tour operator is to package transport, accommodation, and activities.) (A package holiday is a good option if you don't have enough time to plan.)

ALL-INCLUSIVE (A type of regime in tourism which indicates that all the expenses are covered in the price.) (The company only offers all-inclusive or full-board holidays.)

BED AND BREAKFAST - B&B (A place that provides a room for a night and breakfast in the morning.) (The B&B we stayed in in London was great because it offered a very good breakfast in the morning.)

DESERTED (Empty and quiet because no people are there.) (The Big Island in the Hawaii archipelago has deserted beaches.)

DISCOUNT (A reduction in the usual price of something.) (They can give us a 20% discount for groups.)

OFF THE BEATEN TRACK (A place where few people go, far from any main roads or towns.) (Explore off the beaten track areas in Hawaii's islands.)

EXPENDITURE (The total amount of money that a government, organization, or person spends during a particular period of time.) (The Canadians spend less than the Japanese in terms of visitor expenditure per year.)

STAG (Stag party.) (A party for men only, especially one held for a man before he is married.)

SCENIC (Scenic road.) (A road that is surrounded by views of beautiful countryside.) (Scenic walk.) (A walk that is surrounded by views.)

SPECTACULAR (Spectacular view.) (Views which are impressive.)

EXCHANGE (Exchange rate.) (The value of the money of one country compared to the money of another country.)

IMPERISHABLE (Imperishable product.) (It doesn't go bad with time, for example.)

MARKETING (Direct marketing.) (Marketing direct to the consumer, as by direct mail.)

PROFIT (Profit margin.) (The difference between the cost of producing something and the selling price.)

PERISHABLE (Perishable product.) (It goes bad and you can't use it after a certain time.)