Travel is the movement of people between relatively distant geographical locations for any purpose and any duration, with or without any means of transport. Travel also includes relatively short stays between successive movements. Movements between locations requiring only a few minutes are not considered as travel. As an activity, travel also covers all the activities performed during travel and leisure.

Travel is a wider concept than a trip. A round trip is a particular type of travel whereby a person moves from his/her usual residence to one or several distant locations and returns. A trip can also be part of a round trip. Travel is most commonly done for recreation and leisure, to visit friends and family, or for business and commuting; but may be for numerous other reasons, such as health care, migration. Travel may occur by walking or human-powered mode, or through mechanical vehicles, either as private or public transport.

Travel may be local, regional, national or international. In some countries, non-local internal travel may require an internal passport, while international travel typically requires a passport and visa.

Travel and Tourism

Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people who “travel to and stay in places outside their usual environment for more than twenty-four hours and not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited”. Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. In 2008, there were over 922 million international tourist arrivals, with a growth of 1.9% as compared to 2007. International tourism receipts grew to $944 billion in 2008, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 1.8%.

The Economy and it’s affects on Travel and Tourism

As a result of the late-2000s recession, international travel demand suffered a strong slowdown beginning in June 2008, with growth in international tourism arrivals worldwide falling to 2% during the boreal summer months. This negative trend intensified during 2009, exacerbated in some countries due to the outbreak of the AH1N1 influenza virus, resulting in a worldwide decline of 4% in 2009 to 880 million international tourists arrivals, and an estimated 6% decline in international tourism receipts.

How Travel affects the world

Travel, Leisure and Tourism is vital for many different countries around the world, Australia, Egypt, Greece and Thailand, as well as The Bahamas, Fiji, the Maldives and the Seychelles all rely on it as means of income thanks to the large amount of business that comes with selling their goods and services, which also leads to many different employment opportunities within the service industries that are associated with tourism.

These service industries include transportation services, such as airlines, cruise ships and taxis, hospitality services, such as accommodations, including hotels and resorts, and entertainment venues, such as amusement parks, casinos, shopping malls, various music venues and the theatre.

Backpacking

Backpacking is a term that has historically been used to denote a form of low-cost, independent international travel. Terms such as independent travel and/or budget travel are often used interchangeably with backpacking. The factors that traditionally differentiate backpacking from other forms of tourism include, but are not limited to the following: use of public transport as a means of travel, preference of youth hostels to traditional hotels, length of the trip vs. conventional vacations, use of a backpack, an interest in meeting the locals as well as seeing the sights.

The definition of a backpacker has evolved as travellers from different cultures and regions participate and will continue to do so, preventing an air-tight definition. Recent research has found that, “…backpackers constituted a heterogeneous group with respect to the diversity of rationales and meanings attached to their travel experiences. They also displayed a common commitment to a non-institutionalised form of travel, which was central to their self identification as backpackers”. Backpacking as a lifestyle and as a business has grown considerably in the 2000s as the commonplace of low-cost airlines, hostels or budget accommodation in many parts of the world, and digital communication and resources make planning, executing and continuing a long-term backpacking trip easier than ever before.

Travel and Leisure together

Travel and Leisure link together perfectly as a coupling, as the main reason people often travel is simply for some leisurely time to themselves or with their loved ones. Leisure is a period of time spent out of work and essential domestic activity. It is also the period of recreational and discretionary time before or after compulsory activities such as eating and sleeping, going to work or running a business, attending school and doing homework, household chores, and day-to-day stress. The distinction between leisure and compulsory activities is loosely applied, i.e. people sometimes do work-oriented tasks for pleasure as well as for long-term utility.  Distinction may also arise between free time and leisure. For example, criticicism of consumer capitalism by the Situationist International maintains that free time is illusory and rarely free and instead, economic and social forces appropriate it from the individual and sell it back to him as a commodity in the form of leisure. Leisure studies is the academic discipline concerned with the study and analysis of leisure.