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Sector definition and focus
Tourism is usually defined as services for people travelling to
and staying outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive
year for leisure or for business purposes. This sector does not fit easily into
any current industry classifications. In fact, activities related with tourism
are covered by a wide range of NACE categories. For the e-Business W@tch goals,
we have two selection criteria in order to define the scope of the sector to be
analysed based on NACE categories:
- those activities should be included that make up a significant share of the
tourism market as defined above
- on the other hand, those activities with at least some relation to tourism
but which are very important as potential and actual users of ICT should also be
included
Generally speaking, tourism involves a wide range of activities
(transport, accommodation, restaurant, cultural activities, leisure) and should
be better viewed and evaluate as a market rather than an industry. Due to its
composite nature and variety of activities involved either directly or
indirectly, the relative value of tourism in the European economy is not
difficult to assess and depends clearly on the definition adopted. Moreover, the
rationale of the "tourism" market is very diverse depending on whether tourism
is done for business purposes or for leisure, and within the "leisure" group
different types can be identified as well (e.g. international/national,
cultural/out-door, round-trips/location-based).
Concerning park activities (92.33), museums activities and
historical sites (92.52) and botanical gardens and nature reserves (92.53), it
should be stressed that these activities lack comprehensive statistical coverage
and official statistics. Nevertheless, technological change pervades across
these activities because of promotion and advertising, online reservation, so
that these activities are very interesting for the e-Business W@tch.
Establishments where tourism prevails over leisure are a particular focus of
analysis. Camping sites and other provision of short-stay accommodation (55.2)
are included because this code includes holiday villages and other short-stay
accommodation that are important users of online reservation tools.
Restaurants, canteens and catering services are excluded because
they do not fit the criteria presented above. They would have to be analysed as
a unit of their own. Otherwise, there is the danger of drawing generic
conclusions from a set of data that covers a too diverse mixture of businesses.
| Code |
Activity |
| 55.1 |
Hotels |
| 55.2 |
Camping sites and other
provision of short-stay accommodation |
| 62.1 |
Scheduled air
transport |
| 63.3 |
Activities of travel
agencies and tour operators; tourist assistance activities
n.e.c. |
| 92.33 |
Fair and amusement park
activities |
| 92.52 |
Museums activities and
preservation of historical sites and buildings |
| 92.53 |
Botanical and zoological
gardens and nature reserves activities |
The tourism sector is a forerunner in using ICT and e-business. The
unexpectedly fast adoption of the internet has a major impact on travel and
tourism services, especially in the areas marketing and B2C e-commerce. Experts
observe and forecast an increasing trend in disintermediation between demand and
supply of tourism services.
European association(s)
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