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V
vacation
A vacation is travel for reasons of recreation and
leisure. Vacations in a modern sense developed in
the nineteenth century with industrialisation.
Economic systems emerged where work patterns
gave rise to formal `holiday ' periods, people with
sufficient income to meet a desire for vacation
during these periods, transport systems to permit
more people to travel within the constrained time,
and infrastructures of attractions and accommodation
at destinations serviced by the new
transport. A spatial and social diffusion has
occurred in which more places are explored by
increasing numbers of people.
A vacation can offer different experiences, which
include the recreational, escape from daily stress
or routine, quest for new experiences and places,
search for alternative lifestyles, and pilgrimage
in that the tourist seeks a spiritual rebirth. Based
upon the types of experiences being sought, tourists
have been segmented into various categories. For
example, tourists may be described as ecotourists,
adventure seekers, sex tourists, jet setters or mass
package holidaymakers based upon their motivations
and the behaviour in which they indulge.
The provision of these different types of vacations
lies within the domain of operators. Examples
include action vacations with white water rafting,
ecoholidays like guided trekking tours through
areas of environmental interest, or tours offering
opportunities to visit operas and museums. Vacations
are thus multivalent, compete with other
forms of leisure, and are complex social and
economic phenomena.
See also: cognitive dissonance; paid vacation;
satisfaction; tours; typology, tourist
vacation hinterland
CHRIS RYAN, NEW ZEALAND
Tourists from urban places move elsewhere to
satisfy their vacation requirements and come to
dominate land uses and economic activity at
convenient distances surrounding the city, reflecting
amenity values and costs in terms of both travel
time and money. These areas of urban dominance
are the city's hinterland. Occasionally, the term is
used in reverse to refer to the area surrounding a
destination from which the majority of tourists
originate.
See also: distance decay
Further reading
Greer, T. and Wall, G. �1986) `Recreational
hinterlands: a theoretical and empirical analysis',
in G. Wall �ed.), Recreational Land Use in Southern
Ontario, Department of Geography Publication
Series No. 14, Waterloo: University of Waterloo,
227±45.
GEOFFREY WALL, CANADA