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Why one decides to take a tourist trip, why one chooses a certain destination, why one prefers a certain mode of transport, why …, these questions are at the very centre of tourism theoretics. If one answers these questions as a potential tourism consumer, consciously excluding all the influences wrought in various ways and by various media by individual suppliers of facilities, it can be determined that the basic impetus lies in the need of the human being—the tourism need — and in efforts to satisfy that need. Speaking in the terminology of economics: the tourist need foregoes of tourism use; it conditions and stimulates it.

When we say that a tourist agency is an indispensable participant on a tourist market, we have just stated a fact accepted by both tourist theory and practice. Yet, there are, relatively speaking, few researches and analyses of tourist agencies work, still less such that would try to scientifically deal with the problems of a tourist agency's operation. With this lack of tourist technical literature in the field of the agency's role in tourism, the absence of theoreticians and those who work in practice can easily be noticed especially in area of sales on a tourist market. It is difficult to answer the question why it is so, nor can we enter into such discussions now. The aim of this contribution is to point out the importance of a process of the agency's work and give arguments for it.

Discussions about terminology in tourism are not rare, and they are often held, as is the case here, on very important and also crucial problems of this field. Many misrepresentations and misconceptions are manifested through terminological problems and misunderstandings. Partly paraphrasing the well‐known verse in “Hamlet”, as we did in the title of this paper, we could say: “Touristic marketing or marketing in tourism?” Although such a question may at first seem pathetic and artificial, its content is a very realistic one in both fields: theoretical and practical. The question is in a way a continuance of many questions raised in the theory and practice of tourism and refers to certain situations and concepts to which attribute “touristic” is added. It is meant by this addition to make situations and concepts clearer, or defined. By adding “touristic” a characteristic content of the very concept or situation is pointed out and there is also a wish to unambiguously stress that its content differs from other similar ones. Thus we operate with the terms “touristic user”, “touristic market”, “Touristic consumption”, “touristic product”, “touristic resort”, etc.

This chapter discusses the importance and the strength of the interaction between tourism and the Muslim world, as well as the importance of tourism to overcome misunderstanding between the peoples in Islamic and non-Islamic countries. The objectives of this chapter are to look at the connections between tourism and Islam and to try to determine how these connections may develop. Tourism has brought many changes in Islamic countries. Traditionally conservative religions are particularly sensitive to such changes. This includes the Muslim world, deeply rooted in certain countries and parts of the world. As a precondition for future tourism developments, the tolerance among peoples and religions is of great importance. Better understanding will bring benefit to all.

Samirah Al-Saleh <sameeraalsaleh@hotmail.com> is a lecturer in geography and tourism at King Abdul Aziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. She is also a doctoral candidate in the Faculty of Business and Law at the University of Sunderland, United Kingdom. She has participated in numerous tourism conferences in Saudi Arabia and abroad. She has contributed to the journal, Al Aqiq, in a recent special edition on the topic of domestic tourism in Saudi Arabia.