Domestic Tourism: Challenging the Notion Through a Geopolitical Lens

This article argues that the traditional way of defining and measuring domestic tourism may be overly simplistic and is not necessarily as straightforward as is commonly thought. This discussion provides insights into certain geographic conditions and spatial anomalies that give cause to rethink situations that might be labeled "domestic tourism" but that in reality may not be truly domestic, or that might deviate from the strictest tenets of the domestic tourism phenomenon. Conditions of travel between noncontiguous territories, the effects of a country's size or shape, a country's physical geography and accessibility, visiting contested territories or sections of partitioned states, and international sameday excursions while visiting a domestic destination call into question the customary measure of travel within one's country of residence as the only defining criterion of domestic tourism. These exceptions to the normative practices of domestic travel have important policy, legislative, management, and research implications.