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Purpose -This paper aims to show the need for tourism researchers to identify clearly units of observation and measurement. Design/methodology/approach -Using examples focusing on international tourism, discussion shows how terms commonly used in tourism research can be vague, ambiguous or invalid for formulating theory or analysis or for generating and presenting research results.Findings -A tourism research best practice is needed regarding identifying populations and observation and measurement units so ambiguous or invalid use of terms like person, visits, visitor and travelers does not occur and specific terms, for example, person-visit, person-visit-day and party-visit are used to communicate clearly.Originality/value -The paper clarifies the necessity of using terms like person-visit, person-visit days and nuclear-family party visit to give research clear meaning and, in some cases, to avoid propagating questionable or invalid analysis.

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