Tourism refers to both a migration, the fact of traveling for pleasure outside his space of everyday life, the usual living spaces, and to reside temporarily, but also an economic sector that includes all activities related to satisfaction and the movement of tourists.

If leisure travel seem to exist since ancient times, tourism takes direction from the eighteenth century with the development of the "Grand Tour". In 1803, the term "tourist" appeared in the French language, derived from the English word tourist appeared in 1800 and refers to its travelers in foreign countries, for another purpose that business before returning home. Stendhal makes popular word with his book Memoirs of a Tourist (1838). One hundred years later, the League of Nations will give a definition of the traveler. The word "tourism" arrives later without cover a precise definition than that given by the Larousse Supplement 1877: "Tourism, usual tourist". Its definition is refined from 1960. In 2000, four international organizations give a common definition to the term. "The" tourism "includes the activities of people during their trips to and staying in places outside their usual environment for a consecutive period not exceeding one year, for leisure, for business and other reasons not related to the exercise of an activity remunerated from within the place visited