• recreational,
• leisure, or
• business purposes.
The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one year for leisure, business and other purposes". Additional words for tourists are holidaymaker, traveler, sightseer, visitor, excursionist, backpacker, globetrotter, day tripper, tripper
Places that a lot of people visit are called "resorts".
There are a lot of reasons why people travel for fun:
- Some people travel to learn about the history of a city or country.
- People from cold places might want to relax in the sun. Many people from the north of Europe travel to Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey for the sun.
- Some people travel to do an activity which they cannot do at home. There are lots of skiing resorts in Switzerland and Austria, where people who do not have mountains at home can ski.
- People sometimes visit friends and family in another city or country.
- Some people enjoy a change in scenery.
Tourism in the Netherlands
The Netherlands is well-known for its
- culture, art and rich historical heritage,
- major cities,
- water and beaches and
- forest and natural areas.
The Dutch tourism industry contributed 5.4% in total to the country's GDP and 9.6% in total to its employment (in 2012).
Tourism is a relatively small sector of the Dutch economy. Germans (3 million tourists per year), Britons (1.5 million tourists per year) and Belgians (1.4 million tourists per year) made up the majority of foreign tourists.
