ABSTRACT
The tourism product in North America represents an increasingly important component of regional economic, social, and cultural development. Widely varying in typology, the tourism product on this continent largely depends on location and regional amenity assets. While travel demands to urban and suburban areas often present confusion to tourism definitions due to the large component of non-leisure based (business) travel, tourism demands within exurban and rural regions of North America are much more clearly defined by leisure-based travel with a strong motivating element of travel for unique and region-specific natural amenity attributes. The component of tourism demands motivated by outdoor recreation in particular provides an interesting focus of discussion.
