Business tourism or business travel is a more limited and focused subset of regular

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

. During business tourism (traveling), individuals are still working and being paid, but are doing so away from both their workplace and home. Some definitions of tourism exclude business travel. However, the

United Nations World Tourism Organization The United Nations World Tourism Organization or UN Tourism (formerly UNWTO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which promotes responsible, sustainable and universally-accessible tourism. Its headquarters are in Madrid, Spain. Othe ...

(UNWTO) defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes". Primary business tourism activities include meetings, and attending conferences and exhibitions. Despite the term business in business tourism, when individuals from government or non-profit organizations engage in similar activities, this is still categorized as business tourism (travel).

Significance

Historically, business tourism takes the form of traveling to, spending money and staying abroad, being away for some time, and has a history as long as that of

international trade International trade is the exchange of capital, goods, and services across international borders or territories because there is a need or want of goods or services. (See: World economy.) In most countries, such trade represents a significan ...

. In late 20th century, business tourism was seen as a major industry. According to the 1998 data from the British Tourist Authority and London Tourist Board, business tourism accounted for about 14% of all trips to or within the UK, and 15% of the tourist market within the UK. A 2005 estimate suggested that those numbers for UK may be closer to 30%. Sharma (2004) cited a UNWTO estimated that business tourism accounts for 30% of international tourism, through its importance varies significantly between different countries.

Characteristics

Compared to regular tourism, business tourism involves a smaller section of the population, with different motivations, and additional freedom-of-choice-limiting constraints imposed through the business aspects. Destinations of business tourism are much more likely to be areas significantly developed for business purposes (cities, industrial regions, etc.). An average business tourist is more wealthy than an average leisure tourist, and is expected to spend more money. Business tourism can be divided into primary and secondary activities. Primary ones are

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for ...

(work)-related, and included activities such as consultancy, inspections, and attending meetings. Secondary ones are related to tourism (

leisure Leisure (, ) has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, Employment, work, job hunting, Housekeeping, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as ...

) and include activities such as dining out, recreation, shopping, sightseeing, meeting others for leisure activities, and so on. While the primary ones tend to be seen as more important, the secondary ones are nonetheless often described as "substantial". Business tourism can involve individual and small-group travel, and destinations can include small to larger meetings, including conventions and conferences,

trade fair A trade show, also known as trade fair, trade exhibition, or trade exposition, is an exhibition organized so that companies in a specific Industry (economics), industry can showcase and demonstrate their latest Product (business), products and se ...

s, and

exhibition An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibiti ...

s. In the US, about half of business tourism involves attending a large meeting of some kind. Most tourist facilities, such as airports, restaurants and hotels, are shared between leisure and business tourists, through a seasonal difference is often apparent (for example, business tourism may use those facilities during times less attractive for leisure tourists, such as when the weather conditions are less attractive). Business tourism can be divided into: * traditional business traveling, or meetings - intended for face-to-face meetings with business partners in different locations * incentive trips - a job perk, aimed at motivating employees (for example, approximately a third of UK companies use this strategy to motivate workers) * conference and exhibition traveling - intended for attending large-scale meetings. In an estimated number of 14,000 conferences worldwide (for 1994), primary destinations are Paris, London, Madrid, Geneva, Brussels, Washington, New York, Sydney and Singapore The words meetings, incentive, conferences and exhibition in the context of business tourism are abbreviated as MICE.

References

{{Authority control Working conditions Types of tourism Types of travel

Tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

Significance

Characteristics

See also

References