Definition: Usual environment

Category: Tourism

The usual environment of a person consists of the direct vicinity of his/her home and place of work or study, and other places frequently visited.

The concept of usual environment has two dimensions, vicinity and frequency. Places located close to the place of residence of a person are part of the usual environment even though they may be rarely visited. Places that are frequently (= on average once a week or more often), on a routine basis, visited are part of the usual environment of a person, even though they may be located at a considerable distance (or in another country) from the place of residence. There is only one usual environment for a person and the concept is applicable in domestic as well as in international tourism. Persons who work in means of transport (lorry drivers, rail crew, airline pilots and hostesses, etc.), travelling sales representatives or agents are included in tourism as business travellers, unless their trips, especially domestic trips, consist of frequent routine travel, in which case they can be excluded by the usual environment criterion. http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:1999:009:0023:0047:EN:PDF