Tourist Beacons are devices found at hundreds of points of interest across the galaxy. When targeting a Tourist Beacon and approaching it closely enough, it will be scanned and a brief text description of the local site will be downloaded to the message inbox of the Comms panel. Tourist Beacons can be found in space and on the surface of planets or moons.
Some passenger missions involve ferrying a group of passengers to a specific Tourist Beacon and scanning it in order to complete the objective.