Tourist attraction

A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited natural or cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, offering leisure, adventure and amusement.

Types

Natural beauty such as beaches, tropical island resorts with coral reefs, hiking and camping in national parks, mountains and forests, are examples of traditional tourist attractions to spend summer vacations. Other examples of cultural tourist attractions include historical places, monuments, ancient temples, zoos, aquaria, museums and art galleries, botanical gardens, buildings and structures (e.g., castles, libraries, former prisons, skyscrapers, bridges), theme parks and carnivals, living history museums, ethnic enclave communities, historic trains and cultural events. Factory tours, industrial heritage, creative art and crafts workshops are the object of cultural niches like industrial tourism and creative tourism. Many tourist attractions are also landmarks.

Destination

Destination may refer to:

Travel

Travel is the movement of people between relatively distant geographical locations, and can involve travel by foot, bicycle, automobile, train, boat, airplane, or other means, with or without luggage, and can be one way or round trip. Travel can also include relatively short stays between successive movements.

Etymology

The origin of the word "travel" is most likely lost to history. The term "travel" may originate from the Old French word travail. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, the first known use of the word travel was in the 14th century. It also states that the word comes from Middle English travailen, travelen (which means to torment, labor, strive, journey) and earlier from Old French travailler (which means to work strenuously, toil). In English we still occasionally use the words travail and travails, which mean struggle. According to Simon Winchester in his book The Best Travelers' Tales (2004), the words travel and travail both share an even more ancient root: a Roman instrument of torture called the tripalium (in Latin it means "three stakes", as in to impale). This link reflects the extreme difficulty of travel in ancient times. Also note the torturous connotation of the word "travailler." Today, travel may or may not be much easier depending upon the destination you choose (i.e., Mt. Everest, the Amazon rainforest), how you plan to get there (tour bus, cruise ship, or oxcart), and whether or not you decide to "rough it (see extreme tourism and adventure travel). "There's a big difference between simply being a tourist and being a true world traveler," notes travel writer Michael Kasum. This is, however, a contested distinction as academic work on the cultures and sociology of travel has noted.

Destination marketing organization

A destination marketing organization (DMO) or convention and visitors bureau (CVB) is an organization that promotes a town, city, region, or country in order to increase the number of visitors. It promotes the development and marketing of a destination, focusing on convention sales, tourism marketing, and services.

Such organizations promote economic development of a destination by increasing visits from tourists and business travelers, which generates overnight lodging for a destination, visits to restaurants, and shopping revenues and are typically funded by taxes. Convention and visitor bureaus are the most important tourism marketing organizations in their respective tourist destinations, as they are directly responsible for marketing the destination brand through travel and tourism "product awareness" to visitors. DMOs produce billions of dollars in direct and indirect revenue and taxes for their destinations' economies with their marketing and sales expertise.

Lonely Planet

Lonely Planet is the largest travel guide book publisher in the world. The company is owned by American billionaire Brad Kelley's NC2 Media, which bought it in 2013 from BBC Worldwide for US$77 million (the equivalent of £45.5 million in May 2014) after it was valued at US$250 million in 2008.

Originally called "Lonely Planet Publications", the company changed its name to "Lonely Planet" in July 2009 to reflect its broad travel industry coverage and an emphasis on digital products. After the Let's Go travel guide series that was founded in 1960, the Lonely Planet books were the second series of travel books aimed at backpackers and other low-cost travellers. As of 2011, the company had sold 120 million books since inception and by early 2014, it had sold around 11 million units of its travel apps.

As of 2014, Lonely Planet's largest office is located in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, Australia, but its Franklin, Tennessee, United States (U.S.) office is the company's de facto headquarters. Other Lonely Planet offices are spread throughout the world, in locations such as London, United Kingdom (U.K.); Beijing, China; and Delhi, India.