Tourism- Riding the Tourist Roller Coaster
Uploaded by vlad5017 on Mar 04, 2004
Tourism is an economic activity associated with all types of traveling away from home, for business, pleasure or other reasons. Tourism is undoubtedly the largest industry in the world and generates lots of many for countries all around the world. In 1999, world tourism contributed 11.7% of world¡¦s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Although this industry provides a lot of opportunities, it also hides many risks. Some people refer tourism as riding a roller-coaster because it is unstable and moving quickly.
Overall the tourism industry is growing. In 1993, there were only 3,000,000 international visitors, in 2003, it increased to around 5,000,000. Many people believe it will continue to grow. The growth of tourism is mostly due to these few factors: increasing level of wealth in some countries, increase number of backpackers and advance in technology.
Most international visitors are from wealthy nations such as USA, United Kingdom and Japan because these people can afford the money to travel. As some parts of the world are getting richer, the more people can travel around the world. In wealthy countries, people can also live longer. That means it is possible for a lower or lower-middle class, steadily employed would retire in good health and with some savings and spend it on traveling. Traveling is no longer a luxury; it is quite popular in most societies.
Backpackers are an important part among the large number of tourist; they now contribute $1 billion a year and will soon comprise 25% of the total international tourism market. Backpackers travel everywhere. They may not go to some popular destinations, most of them seek for adventures and to really experience the culture of that place.
The advance in technology makes traveling a lot easier. Before airplane is invented, it would take people months to travel overseas by ship or railway. For example, it took you three days to travel by railway from Hong Kong to Beijing. But now if you take an airplane, it would only take three hours to travel. The improved in transportation links the world up and makes traveling a lot easier. Other technologies such as the internet also helps the tourism industry because and it allows people to get traveling information much quicker and it also allows people to book their tickets or hotels online.
Although the general...