tourist meaning urban dictionary

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a person who is traveling, especially for pleasure.

tourist class .

in tourist-class accommodations, or by tourist-class conveyance: to travel tourist.

Origin of tourist

Other words from tourist.

• non·tour·ist, noun

Words Nearby tourist

• Tourette syndrome
• touring car
• touring company
• tourist car
• tourist class
• tourist court
• tourist home

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use tourist in a sentence

South Dakota is the more tourist -friendly, slightly better weather, historic Mount Rushmore spot.

Amsterdam has an economy which is highly dependent on tourists.

Travelers, however, are eligible to have the tax refunded on goods they take home with them, which is what agencies such as Planet specialize in facilitating, giving it a clear view of how much tourists are buying.

In June, when peak season is typically getting underway, tourist spending was still 98% below its level last year based on Planet’s data.

Besides feeling safe, tourists may also be lured to local destinations given international travel currently comes with complicated quarantine protocols by governments in different countries.

Its graceful hotels and beautiful restaurants are totally dependent on the tourist trade.

It is the only tourist center Ukraine has left on the Black Sea, since Russia annexed Crimea last spring.

For the Brogpas, transforming into a tourist attraction may offer their community a way to generate much-needed income.

The two islands are now tourist sites for visitors from Taiwan and mainland China.

Not all Israeli gay propaganda is pinkwashing—a lot of it is good, old-fashioned PR to attract gay tourist dollars to Tel Aviv.

The tourist climbing tna, or Vesuvius' rugged side, puffs on though they perchance have long since ceased to smoke.

They have developed fishing and agriculture, and have brought the tourist into districts little visited before.

Mr. Frank Cook had insisted upon our being the guests of his firm on their tourist steamer Amasis.

My father knew him well, often talked to me about him, and told me stories of the excursion and tourist trade in its early days.

This was the first small beginning of that great tourist business which now encircles the habitable globe.

British Dictionary definitions for tourist

/ ( ˈtʊərɪst ) /

a person who travels for pleasure, usually sightseeing and staying in hotels

( as modifier ) : tourist attractions

a person on an excursion or sightseeing tour

a person travelling abroad as a member of a sports team that is playing a series of usually international matches

Also called: tourist class the lowest class of accommodation on a passenger ship

of or relating to tourist accommodation

Derived forms of tourist

• touristic , adjective

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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Definition of tourist noun from the Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary

• busloads of foreign tourists
• a popular tourist attraction/destination/resort
• the tourist industry/sector
• The tourist season here peaks in spring.
• The island attracts tourists from all over the world.
• The tourist information centre is right next to the mosque.
• The changing of the guard is popular with the tourists.
• package tour
• self-catering
• have/​take (British English) a holiday/ (North American English) a vacation/​a break/​a day off/ (British English) a gap year
• go on/​be on holiday/​vacation/​leave/​honeymoon/​safari/​a trip/​a tour/​a cruise/​a pilgrimage
• go backpacking/​camping/​hitchhiking/​sightseeing
• plan a trip/​a holiday/​a vacation/​your itinerary
• book accommodation/​a hotel room/​a flight/​tickets
• have/​make/​cancel a reservation/ (especially British English) booking
• rent a villa/ (both British English) a holiday home/​a holiday cottage
• (especially British English) hire/ (especially North American English) rent a car/​bicycle/​moped
• stay in a hotel/​a bed and breakfast/​a youth hostel/​a villa/ (both British English) a holiday home/​a caravan
• cost/​charge $100 a/​per night for a single/​double/​twin/​standard/ (British English) en suite room
• check into/​out of a hotel/​a motel/​your room
• pack/​unpack your suitcase/​bags
• call/​order room service
• cancel/​cut short a trip/​holiday/​vacation
• apply for/​get/​renew a/​your passport
• take out/​buy/​get travel insurance
• catch/​miss your plane/​train/​ferry/​connecting flight
• fly (in)/travel in business/​economy class
• make/​have a brief/​two-day/​twelve-hour stopover/ (North American English also) layover in Hong Kong
• experience/​cause/​lead to delays
• check (in)/collect/​get/​lose (your) (especially British English) luggage/ (especially North American English) baggage
• be charged for/​pay excess baggage
• board/​get on/​leave/​get off the aircraft/​plane/​ship/​ferry
• taxi down/​leave/​approach/​hit/​overshoot the runway
• experience/​hit/​encounter severe turbulence
• suffer from/​recover from/​get over your jet lag/​travel sickness
• attract/​draw/​bring tourists/​visitors
• encourage/​promote/​hurt tourism
• promote/​develop ecotourism
• build/​develop/​visit a tourist/​holiday/ (especially British English) seaside/​beach/​ski resort
• work for/​be operated by a major hotel chain
• be served by/​compete with low-cost/ (especially North American English) low-fare/​budget airlines
• book something through/​make a booking through/​use a travel agent
• contact/​check with your travel agent/​tour operator
• book/​be on/​go on a package deal/​holiday/​tour
• buy/​bring back (tacky/​overpriced) souvenirs
• sightseeing
• Recently Edinburgh has become a popular tourist centre.
• The Story of the Loch Ness Monster has attracted many tourists to the area.
• The city has unrealized tourist potential.
• The festival is accompanied by a huge influx of tourists.
• The theme park is the region's most popular tourist facility.
• The town is off the usual tourist route.
• Their economy is dependent on tourist dollars.
• the part of town most frequented by tourists
• He entered the country on a tourist visa.
• It was the beginning of the tourist season.
• Local roads cannot cope with the increase in tourist traffic.
• The Taj Mahal is one of the most important tourist sights in India.
• We have a large influx of tourists in the summer.
• We travelled on minor roads and tracks, away from the tourist trail.
• We visited all the usual tourist spots.
• come to something
• flock to something
• frequent something
• centre/​center
• destination
• influx of tourists

Definitions on the go

Look up any word in the dictionary offline, anytime, anywhere with the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary app.

Etymology [ edit ]

From tour +‎ -ist .

Pronunciation [ edit ]

• ( Received Pronunciation ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈtʊəɹɪst/ , /ˈtɔːɹɪst/
• ( US ) IPA ( key ) : /ˈtʊɹ.ɪst/ , /ˈtɝ.ɪst/ , /ˈtɔɹ.ɪst/
• Rhymes: ( Received Pronunciation ) -ʊəɹɪst , -ɔːɹɪst

Noun [ edit ]

tourist ( plural tourists )

• 1897 December (indicated as 1898 ), Winston Churchill , chapter II, in The Celebrity: An Episode , New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company ; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd. , →OCLC : Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke. He was dressed out in broad gaiters and bright tweeds, like an English tourist , and his face might have belonged to Dagon, idol of the Philistines.
• 2005 , Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs , Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 94 : The group operating where we were was called the "Abu Sayyaf" and specialised in K&R (kidnap and ransom), usually of tourists who would finish up beheaded on TV.
• ( derogatory ) One who visits a place or attends a social event out of curiosity, wanting to watch without commitment or involvement.
• ( sports , informal ) A member of the visiting team in a match.
• 1984 , Dean Gengle, The Netweaver's Sourcebook , page 105 : This popularity was supposedly due to M.I.T.'s tolerance of " tourists " on its system.
• 2012 , Michael Banks, On the Way to the Web : The online tourists then uploaded the files to share with other BBS aficionados.

Derived terms [ edit ]

• abortion tourist
• agritourist
• antitourist
• architourist
• astrotourist
• bicycle tourist
• class tourist
• cybertourist
• dark tourist
• disaster tourist
• ethnotourist
• gastrotourist
• grief tourist
• posttourist
• romance tourist
• sex tourist
• six bob a day tourist
• space tourist
• suicide tourist
• sustainable tourist
• ten pound tourist
• ten-pound tourist
• tourist agency
• tourist area
• tourist attraction
• tourist card
• tourist court
• tourist destination
• tourist guide
• tourist highway
• touristification
• touristlike
• tourist office
• tourist police
• touristscape
• tourist trap
• tourist trappy
• tourist tree
• tourist visa
• voluntourist

Translations [ edit ]

Verb [ edit ].

tourist ( third-person singular simple present tourists , present participle touristing , simple past and past participle touristed )

• 2020 November 4, Sarah Firshein, “Forget Long Weekends: During the Pandemic It’s All About Short Weeks”, in The New York Times ‎ [1] : “You can’t go touristing anymore like you used to, but weekends away — traditionally crammed into sneaking out of work slightly early on a Friday in a dash to have some repose — now mean heading out on a Wednesday night, logging on to work and coming back Monday night,” said Tom Caton, the co-founder and chief revenue officer of AirDNA [ … ]

Further reading [ edit ]

• English terms suffixed with -ist
• English 2-syllable words
• English terms with IPA pronunciation
• English terms with audio links
• Rhymes:English/ʊəɹɪst
• Rhymes:English/ʊəɹɪst/2 syllables
• Rhymes:English/ɔːɹɪst
• Rhymes:English/ɔːɹɪst/2 syllables
• English lemmas
• English nouns
• English countable nouns
• English terms with quotations
• English derogatory terms
• English informal terms
• en:Computing
• English dated terms
• English verbs
• English intransitive verbs
• English entries with topic categories using raw markup
• Quotation templates to be cleaned
• Mandarin terms with redundant transliterations
• Urdu terms with non-redundant manual transliterations

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Product Development

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Urban Tourism

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According to UN Tourism, Urban Tourism is "a type of tourism activity which takes place in an urban space with its inherent attributes characterized by non-agricultural based economy such as administration, manufacturing, trade and services and by being nodal points of transport. Urban/city destinations offer a broad and heterogeneous range of cultural, architectural, technological, social and natural experiences and products for leisure and business".

According to the United Nations, in 2015, 54% of the world’s population lived in urban areas and, by 2030, this share is expected to reach 60%. Along with other key pillars, tourism constitutes a central component in the economy, social life and the geography of many cities in the world and is thus a key element in urban development policies.

Urban tourism can represent a driving force in the development of many cities and countries contributing to the progress of the New Urban Agenda and the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, in particular, Goal 11: Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable . Tourism is intrinsically linked to how a city develops itself and provides more and better living conditions to its residents and visitors.

Fulfilling tourism’s potential as a tool of sustainable and inclusive growth for cities requires a multi-stakeholder and multilevel approach based on close cooperation among tourism and non-tourism administrations at different levels, private sector, local communities and tourists themselves. Likewise, the sustainable development and management of tourism in cities needs to be integrated into the wider urban agenda.

  8th UN Tourism Global Summit on Urban Tourism "Smart Cities, Smart Destinations"   7th UN Tourism Global Summit on Urban Tourism   6th Global Summit on Urban Tourism   5th Global Summit on City Tourism   4th Global Summit on City Tourism   3rd Global Summit on City Tourism   2nd UN TourismGlobal Summit on City Tourism   Global Summit on City Tourism

  UN Tourism Conference on City Breaks: Creating Innovative Tourism Experiences

Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism

  3rd edition Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism (Madrid)

  2nd edition Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism (Porto)   1st edition Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism (Lisbon)

Quantifying tourism in city destinations

This joint report of UN Tourism and WTCF assesses the current situation and challenges of tourism data collection and reporting at the city level through the review and analysis of 22 case studies of city destinations covering Africa, the Americas, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East. The analysis will help advance the harmonization of existing data practices in city destinations with the ambition of creating a global database of urban tourism, enabling better understanding and benchmarking of its size, value and impacts, both globally and by region.

UN Tourism Recommendations on Urban Tourism

These recommendations stem from the series of UN Tourism Urban Tourism Summits held since 2012, and the Lisbon Declaration on Sustainable Urban tourism, adopted at the First UN Tourism Mayors Forum for Sustainable Urban Tourism, held in Portugal on 5 April 2019. They also drawn on the research conducted by the UN Tourism Secretariat in the field of urban tourism.

UN Tourism-WTCF City Tourism Performance Research

The UN Tourism/WTCF City Tourism Performance Research brings forward an analysis and evaluation of success stories in urban destinations. The results were collected by experts who applied the methodology created for the initiative through the realization of field visits and interviews of local tourism authorities and the main stakeholders. The publication based on case studies from 15 cities, provides in-depth understanding of each individual city and has the objective to enable other cities to learn from the progress they have achieved in order to enhance their performance, competitiveness and sustainability.

‘Overtourism’? – Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions

The management of tourism flows in cities to the benefit of visitors and residents alike is a fundamental issue for the tourism sector. It is critical to understand residents’ attitude towards tourism to ensure the development of successful sustainable tourism strategies. This report analyzes the perception of residents towards tourism in eight European cities – Amsterdam, Barcelona, Berlin, Copenhagen, Lisbon, Munich, Salzburg and Tallinn – and proposes 11 strategies and 68 measures to help understand and manage visitor’s growth in urban destinations. The implementation of the policy recommendations proposed in this report can advance inclusive and sustainable urban tourism that can contribute to the New Urban Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals.

‘Overtourism’? – Understanding and Managing Urban Tourism Growth beyond Perceptions. Volume 2: Case Studies

This second volume includes 18 case studies across the Americas, Asia and the Pacific and Europe – Amsterdam, Antwerp, Barcelona, Berlin, Besalú, Cambridge, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Ghent, Hangzhou, London, Lucerne, Macao (China), New York, Lisbon, Seoul, Porto, Prague and Venice – on how cities are implementing the following eleven strategies: 1. Promote the dispersal of visitors within the city and beyond; 2. Promote time-based dispersal of visitors; 3. Stimulate new visitor itineraries and attractions; 4. Review and adapt regulation; 5. Enhance visitors’ segmentation; 6. Ensure local communities benefit from tourism; 7. Create city experiences that benefit both residents and visitors; 8. Improve city infrastructure and facilities; 9. Communicate with and engage local stakeholders; 10. Communicate with and engage visitors; and 11. Set monitoring and response measures.

Global survey on the perception of residents towards city tourism: impact and measures

This research is a result of a partnership between the World Tourism Organization (UN Tourism) and IPSOS. To better manage the issues arising from the growing tourism demand in urban destinations it is essential to understand resident's experiences and perceptions on city tourism. The research aims at understanding the perception of residents towards city tourism, its impacts, as well as the most adequate strategies to manage the growing tourism flows in cities.

New Business Models in the Accommodation Industry – Benchmarking of Rules and Regulations in the Short-term Rental Market

Several factors explain the growth of the so-called “sharing economy” in the tourism sector over recent years, including the 2010 global economic crisis, digitalization and new trends in travellers’ behaviour and preferences. This growth has been particularly notable in the accommodation industry. With the emergence of online platforms for short-term rentals, the market has been expanding at an unprecedented rate.

Building upon UN Tourism’s 2017 publication New Platform Tourism Services (or the so-called Sharing Economy) – Understand, Rethink and Adapt, this report provides an analysis and benchmarking of 21 case studies in terms of the rules and regulations applied to the short-term rental market, focusing on three key areas: 1) fair competition; 2) consumer protection; and 3) planning and sustainability.

• Tianjin Workshop, 2 September 2017
• Buenos Aires Workshop, 26 September 2017

Definition of 'tourist'

Video: pronunciation of tourist

tourist in American English

Tourist in british english, examples of 'tourist' in a sentence tourist, related word partners tourist, trends of tourist.

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• tourism promotion
• tourism revenue
• tourism trade
• tourist accommodation
• tourist agency
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Related terms of tourist

• tourist bus
• tourist car
• tourist hub
• tourist tax
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Definition of tourist

• excursionist
• rubbernecker
• traveller
• tripper [ chiefly British ]

Examples of tourist in a Sentence

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'tourist.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

1775, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing tourist

• tourist trap

tourist attractions

• tourist class
• tourist season
• tourist card
• tourist court

Dictionary Entries Near tourist

Cite this entry.

“Tourist.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary , Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tourist. Accessed 9 Apr. 2024.

Kids Definition

Kids definition of tourist, more from merriam-webster on tourist.

Nglish: Translation of tourist for Spanish Speakers

Britannica English: Translation of tourist for Arabic Speakers

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tourism noun

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What does the noun tourism mean?

There is one meaning in OED's entry for the noun tourism . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definition, usage, and quotation evidence.

Entry status

OED is undergoing a continuous programme of revision to modernize and improve definitions. This entry has not yet been fully revised.

How common is the noun tourism ?

How is the noun tourism pronounced, british english, u.s. english, where does the noun tourism come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun tourism is in the 1810s.

OED's earliest evidence for tourism is from 1811, in Sporting Magazine .

tourism is formed within English, by derivation.

Etymons: tour n. , ‑ism suffix .

Nearby entries

• tourette, n.¹ 1881–
• Tourette, n.² 1899–
• Tourettism, n. 1981–
• tourification, n. 1802–
• tourify, v. 1820–
• tourifying, adj. 1825–
• touring, n. 1818–
• touring, adj. 1832–
• touring-car, n. 1903–
• touring-sedan, n. 1915–
• tourism, n. 1811–
• tourist, n. 1780–
• tourist, v. 1953–
• tourist cabin, n. 1928–
• tourist-car, n. 1895–
• tourist card, n. 1971–
• tourist centre | tourist center, n. 1922–
• tourist class, n. 1936–
• tourist court, n. 1937–
• touristdom, n. 1888–
• touristed, adj. 1873–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for tourism, n..

tourism, n. was first published in 1913; not yet revised.

tourism, n. was last modified in July 2023.

Revision of the OED is a long-term project. Entries in oed.com which have not been revised may include:

• corrections and revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations which have been added in subsequent print and online updates.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into tourism, n. in July 2023.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

OED First Edition (1913)

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• View tourism in OED Second Edition

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Citation details

Factsheet for tourism, n., browse entry.

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Meaning of tourist in Essential English Dictionary

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(Definition of tourist from the Cambridge Essential Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

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