Travel and Tourism Terms Fly drive: A vacation package that includes air
transportation and a rental car. Many international
Accessible: Handicapped accessible. Whether a
hotel, restaurant, or attraction can accommodate
people in wheelchairs or who have other
disabilities.
Assets: The attractions, hotels and restaurants
within a given region. Assets are what that area has
to offer guests who visit.
Buyers: Travel Trade professionals who sell to
consumers. They are tour operators, receptive
operators, travel agents and OTAs (online travel
agents). They look for destinations and attractions
to package and sell to their customers.
CVB: Convention and Visitors Bureau. Primarily the
same thing as a DMO or TPA (see below).
DMO: Destination Marketing Organization. A
destination marketing organization is an entity that
promotes a town, city, region, or country to
increase visitation. It promotes the development
and marketing of a destination, focusing on
convention sales, tourism marketing, and services.
The primary goal of a DMO is to create and
implement strategic marketing plans around
tourism, bringing local tourism businesses together
and helping them to work collectively. This
transforms a set of attractions, activities and
services into a cohesive and compelling travel
experience. Break the Ice Media works with several
DMOs, including Cayuga County Office of Tourism,
Genesee County Office of Tourism and Visit
Syracuse.
FAM: Familiarization Tour. FAMs are marketing
initiatives, inviting either media or travel trade
professionals to tour a region or destination.
Experiencing it helps them write about it or sell it
as a product to their customers. The activities on a
FAM are typically shorter than what the actual
visitor experiences. They provide a sampling of
what is offered.
FIT: Foreign Independent Traveler. An international
family or small group travelling to the USA. They
arrive by airplane and usually rent cars for
transportation.
tourists (FITs) prefer to buy these types of packages
to explore a destination.
Front-line staff: People who interact with and give
service to customers, guests and visitors. For
example, front desk staff at a hotel or a cashier at
an attraction.
Group Leader: The person who accompanies
and/or leads the people on a group tour. They
work for the Group Tour Operator who sells the
tour.
Group Tour Operator: A person who puts together
vacation packages for groups. They sell these
packages as products to consumers. They also fit
into the category of Buyers.
Inbound operators: Agencies that specialize in
providing tour packages to international travelers
visiting the United States. Also known as Receptive
Operators. Travel agents from foreign countries will
work with an inbound receptive operator to find a
travel package that suits their customers. A couple
of examples are TourMappers and ATI, who we’ve
worked with.
Inbound Tourism: Tourism generated by visitors
from foreign countries. This does not include drive
markets in the U.S. (domestic travel), and in New
York State visitors.
Itinerary: The planned route for a trip. This is what
the travel trade professionals sell to their
customers. It’s a pre-planned experience with
where to go, when, and what to expect when you
get there.
Motorcoach: Large passenger bus. This is the
vehicle most often used for people travelling with
group travel tours.
Net Rate: Hotel room inventory sold via a third-
party distributor at prices subject to commission.
The Net Rate is the price for a hotel room without
the commission of the third-party distributor.
These distributors could be a travel agent,
receptive operator or online travel agent. (See also,
Rack Rate)

Partners: The people who own or manage the
assets of a region. These partners work closely with
their region’s DMO and benefit from tourism
dollars spent at their establishments.
Rack Rate: Standard daily rate established for hotel
rooms. This rate is typically public, printed on hotel
brochures and listed on websites.
Suppliers: Tourism or Travel professionals who sell
to businesses aka Buyers. They sell B2B (that
means business to business). They work with
tourism companies to promote their attraction or
destination.
TPA: Tourism Promotion Agency. This is basically
the same thing as a DMO. A government agency
that promotes tourism in a specific county or
region within New York State.
Attraction − It is a physical or cultural feature of a
place that can satisfy tourists’ leisure based need.
Cultural Heritage − It is an expression of the
manner of living developed by a community and
passed on from one generation to the next. It
includes customs, practices, places, objects, artistic
expressions and values.
Dark Tourism − (Black or Grief tourism) It is the
tourism involving travel to places historically
associated with death and tragedy.
Destination − It is a place the tourist visits and stays
there for at least 24 hours. The destination
supports staying facilities, attractions, and tourist
resources.
Ecotourism − It involves maintenance and
enhancement of natural systems such as water, air,
woods and forests, and flora and fauna through
tourism.
Excursionist − Persons traveling for pleasure in a
period less than 24 hours
Foreign Tourist − Any person visiting a country,
other than that in which he/she usually resides, for
a period of at least 24 hours.
Hiking − A long and vigorous walk on the trail.
Intermediaries − They are the intermediate links
between the form of goods and services tourists do
not require and the form of goods and services the
tourists demand.
Itinerary − A documented plan of the tour.
Leisure − The free time when obligations are at a
minimum and one can relax.
Recreation − The activities carried out during
leisure time.
Site − It is a particular place bound by physical or
cultural characteristics
Skiing − It is a recreational activity and competitive
winter sport in which the participant uses skis to
glide on snow.
Snorkeling − It is the practice of swimming on or
through a water body while being equipped with a
diving mask composed of a shaped tube called a
snorkel.
Terrain − It is a stretch of land, especially with
regard to its physical features.
Tourism Carrying Capacity − The maximum number
of people that may visit a tourist destination at the
same time, without causing destruction of the
physical, economic, socio-cultural environment,
and an unacceptable decrease in the quality of
visitors' satisfaction.
Travel − The act of moving outside one's home
community for business or pleasure but not for
commuting or traveling to or from usual places.
United Nations World Tourism Organization
(UNWTO) − It is the United Nations (UN) agency
responsible for the promotion of responsible,
sustainable, and universally accessible tourism.
Visitor − A non-residential person visiting the place.
WTO − World Tourism Organization.