The Excursionist or the Same-Day Visitor

The excursionist is a foreign visitor whose stay does not exceed 24 hours.

The economic impact of the international excursionist is very important to small isolated countries which receive cruise-ship passengers.

In fact, visitors spending the night on ship board are classified as same- day visitors and not tourists. The excursionist therefore does not spend the night in the country he is visiting.

It is difficult, however, to determine the tourism definition of a short trip.

Generally, a journey is considered to be a trip when a minimum distance has been covered or when there has been a change of administrative district.

Commuting (daily journeys between home and work) and shopping trips are excluded from the excursionist category.

The business excursionist is generally an official representative or an agent travelling for his company. If his journey is not considered to be commuting to work he is registered in international tourism statistics. However, some countries now apply special restrictions when it comes to classifying the business excursionist.

They are either excluded from the international tourist classification or recorded in a category apart, even if they stay overnight in the country.

Excursionist tourism is particularly important for small insular countries like the Caribbean Islands. A large proportion of their market is tourists who arrive on cruise ships going out during the day but actually accommodated on board.

Travel Motivation

Travel motivation in international tourism can be divided into three main categories: price, climate and personal motives.

Price

Cost is a major motivating factor in international tourism. The low prices for tourism products in certain countries explain their success in attracting tourists from countries that have a higher general price level.

Study the information of visitors included into and excluded from tourism statistics:

Visitors excluded from tourism statistics (a) people arriving in a country for work with or without a contract (including service personnel and people accompanying them); (b) people travelling to attend meetings or for assignments (sports, scientific, management). Employees of large organisations on assignments abroad for less than one year are also included; (c) people travelling for business (employees of commercial or industrial firms who are travelling to install machinery or equipment abroad etc); (d) students and young people at boarding schools or colleges and those who travel or work temporarily during their holidays; (e) visitors from cruise ships even if they stay less than 12 hours. They can be registered as a separate group which does not take into account their place of residence; (f) transit passengers who cross the country m more or less than 24 hours; (g) foreign airline and ship crews on stopover in a country; (h) musicians or artists on tour.

Visitors included in tourism statistics (a) people travelling for pleasure, for health, etc. (including nationals who live permanently abroad); (b) people who immigrate; (c) people who live or work on an international border including those who live in one country and work in another; (d) diplomats, embassy staff, members of armed forces stationed abroad (including their service personnel and people accompanying them); (e) refugees; (f) nomads; (g) transit passengers who do not leave the transit area in the airport or at the port.

Source: WTO

The survey carried out by American Express shows that of European countries, Spain, Greece and Portugal are relatively inexpensive, compared to France and Italy. This, and the favourable climate in these countries, explains their success as mass-market destinations.

The USA and Thailand are popular long-haul destinations for Europeans and they are very competitive. The cost of travel to these destinations has fallen with the introduction of charter flights.

The differential in tourism prices between countries is a result of their different salary levels.

Tourism is labour-intensive and salaries make up a large proportion of product costs. It follows that tourists from high-wage countries are attracted by the low tourism prices in low-wage countries. Price differential is an important factor in the motivation of Northern European tourists to visit Southern European destinations and the motivation of North American tourists to visit Mexico and Latin America.