Tourism- Riding the Tourist Roller Coaster

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 worldЎ¦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 trend of the industry is increasing, just like the roller coaster, there are always some sudden downfalls. The most recent examples are the terrorism that affects the western world and Severe Acute Respiratory Symptom (SARS) that affects the eastern world, so as the economic recession that the whole world suffers from. Economic recession in 1997-1998 had a major impact on tourism. Many people lost their jobs and had lower income. People had lost their interest in traveling because they would not spend that much money on entertainment any more. The arrivals of international tourists had dropped from 4,000,000 to 3,600,000. but the world soon recovered because some hall mark events such as the Sydney Olympics and Millennium brought the tourism up again. After the terrorist attack on 11th September, 2001, the number of tourist to USA dropped dramatically, with the number of visitors from abroad plummeting 10.6%. According to information released by the World Tourism Organization (WTO), in 2001 international tourism has been decreased by 1.3%. For 19 years international tourism remained constant and did not decline. Many people feel it is unsafe to travel overseas, especially to some western countries. By the beginning of 2002, the international tourism had recovered a little but then in 12th October 2002, there was the Bali bombing. Safety and terrorist issues are again in questioned. People once again cancelled their trips and most people do not want to travel overseas. Terrorism may not really affect the countries in the east because they are precise as safe countries. But in 2003, the SARS epidemic had a strong impact on the Asia tourism industry. China was among the hardest hit countries, it is estimated that it lost 10 million of travellers during SARS. Tourism is just like riding a roller coaster. It always goes up and down. No one could foresee the advance in technology or the wealth of countries and no one can forebode those terrorist attacks and the SARS epidemic. The future of the industry is unpredictable. There are many surprises, no matter good or not, lying in front of this world biggest industry.