Annals- q] Tourism Research, Vol. 15, pp. 179-190, 1988 0160-7383/88 $3.0(I + .00 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1988 Pergamon Pressplc and J. Jafari DEFINING TOURISM A Supply-Side View Stephen L. J. Smith University of Waterloo, Canada Abstract: A supply-side definition of the tourism industry is proposed. The definition is based on recognizing two tiers of tourism businesses: a tier composed of businesses that serve exclusively tourists and a tier com- posed of businesses that serve a mix of tourists and local residents. These tiers are operationally defined from several Statistics Canada data sources and the Standard Industrial Classification codes. A key strength of this definition is that it permits both conceptualization and measurement of tourism in a way that is consistent with other economic activity. Applica- tion of the definition to available 1981/82 data sources resulted in an estimate of the size of Canadian tourism, four times as large as forestry, slightly larger than agriculture, and just under automobile manufactur- ing. Keywords: tourism, tourism industry, economics, supply-side, mag- nitude of tourism, Canada. R~sum~: Pour une d~finition du tourisme: une perspective du march~ de l'offre. On propose une d6finition de l'industrie touristique du c6t~ du march~ de l'offre. Cette d6finition est bas~e sur l'identification de deux couches d'entreprises touristiques: une couche qui se compose d'entre- prises qui sont exclusivement au service des touristes, et une autre touche d'entreprises qui servent un m61ange de touristes et d'habitants locaux. 12identification de ces deux couches a 6tt} faite de fa(;on op~rationnelle, partir de plusieurs sources de donn6es statistiques canadiennes et h partir de la Classification industrielle standard. Un avantage clef de cette d6fini- tion est qu'elle permet une conceptualisation aussi bien qu'un mesurage du tourisme qui sont compatibles avec d'autres activit~s Oconomiques. Une application de la d6finition aux sources de donn~es disponibles a produit une estimation de l'ampleur du tourisme canadien, qui est quatre fois plus grand que la sylviculture, un peu plus grand que l'agriculture et "~ peine moins important que l'industrie automobile. Mots clef: tourisme, industrie touristique, ~conomie, march~ de l'offre, ampleur du tourisme, Canada. INTRODUCTION What is tourism? The field does not lack answers to this question. In fact, it sometimes appears to have too many answers. Tourism re- searchers, governmental agencies, tourism associations, and individual Stephen Smith is Professor and Chairman, Department of Recreation and Leisure Studies, University of Waterloo. His research interests include the geography of tour- ism and tourism demand analysis. This paper is an outgrowth of his work with the National Task Force on Tourism Data (Canada). 179