The Tourism Industry and Its Growth
Tourism is basically the business of people travelling for fun, and it's absolutely massive. We're talking about 5% of the entire world's economy and over £120 billion for the UK alone! In 2019, a whopping 1.5 billion people travelled internationally as tourists.
So why has tourism exploded in recent decades? People have more expendable income to spend on holidays, and the world's population keeps growing. Plus, booking flights and hotels online is dead easy now, and commercial flights are available to almost everywhere you'd want to go.
Border controls have relaxed in many places, making international travel much simpler. There are also loads more attractions popping up everywhere - festivals, sports events, new museums and theme parks - giving people more reasons to travel.
Quick Fact: Tourism growth has been so rapid that international tourist arrivals increased from just millions to 1.5 billion by 2019!