Excursion vs. Tourism

Main Difference

The main difference between Excursion and Tourism is that the Excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes and Tourism is a travel for recreational or leisure purposes.

• Excursion

  An excursion is a trip by a group of people, usually made for leisure, education, or physical purposes. It is often an adjunct to a longer journey or visit to a place, sometimes for other (typically work-related) purposes.

  Public transportation companies issue reduced price excursion tickets to attract business of this type. Often these tickets are restricted to off-peak days or times for the destination concerned.

  Short excursions for education or for observations of natural phenomena are called field trips. One-day educational field studies are often made by classes as extracurricular exercises, e.g. to visit a natural or geographical feature.

  The term is also used for short military movements into foreign territory, without a formal announcement of war.

• Tourism

  Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international, or within the traveller’s country. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism more generally, in terms which go “beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only”, as people “traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes”.Tourism can be domestic or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country’s balance of payments.

  Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession, between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza virus, but slowly recovered. International tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance of payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (€740 billion) in 2005, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8% from 2010. International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012, emerging markets such as China, Russia, and Brazil had significantly increased their spending over the previous decade. The ITB Berlin is the world’s leading tourism trade fair. Global tourism accounts for ca. 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Tourism (noun)

  the commercial organization and operation of holidays and visits to places of interest

  “the tourism industry”

  “a national fund for the promotion of tourism”