For other uses, see Tourism (disambiguation)."Tourist" redirects here. For other uses, see Tourist (disambiguation).
Tourists at the Temple of Apollo, Delphi, Greece
Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel.[1] UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as being limited to holiday activity only", as people "travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure and not less than 24 hours, business and other purposes".[2] Tourism can be domestic (within the traveller's own country) or international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a country's balance of payments.
Tourism numbers declined as a result of a strong economic slowdown (the late-2000s recession) between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and in consequence of the outbreak of the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus,[3][4] but slowly recovered until the COVID-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to the growth. The United Nations World Tourism Organization estimated that global international tourist arrivals might have decreased by 58% to 78% in 2020, leading to a potential loss of US$0.9–1.2 trillion in international tourism receipts.[5]
Globally, international tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance of payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (€740 billion) in 2005, corresponding to an increase in real terms of 3.8% from 2010.[6] International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1 billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012.[7] Emerging source markets such as China, Russia, and Brazil had significantly increased their spending over the previous decade.[8]
Global tourism accounts for c. 8% of global greenhouse-gas emissions.[9] Emissions as well as other significant environmental and social impacts are not always beneficial to local communities and their economies. For this reason, many tourist development organizations have begun to focus on sustainable tourism to mitigate the negative effects caused by the growing impact of tourism. The United Nations World Tourism Organization emphasized these practices by promoting tourism as part of the Sustainable Development Goals, through programs like the International Year for Sustainable Tourism for Development in 2017,[10] and programs like Tourism for SDGs focusing on how SDG 8, SDG 12 and SDG 14 implicate tourism in creating a sustainable economy.[11]
Tourism has reached new dimensions with the emerging industry of space tourism, as well as the cruise ship industry. Another potential new tourism industry is virtual tourism.
^"tourism". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^"UNWTO technical manual: Collection of Tourism Expenditure Statistics" (PDF). World Tourism Organization. 1995. p. 10. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 September 2010. Retrieved 26 March 2009.
^"International tourism challenged by deteriorating global economy" (PDF). UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. 7 (1). January 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
^"UNWTO World Tourism Barometer Interim Update" (PDF). UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. August 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 17 November 2011.
^"International Tourist Numbers Could Fall 60-80% in 2020". www.unwto.org. Retrieved 16 September 2020.
^Magalhães, Bianca dos Santos (1 July 2017). UNWTO Tourism Highlights: 2017 Edition. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). doi:10.18111/9789284419029. ISBN 978-92-844-1902-9.
^"UNWTO World Tourism Barometer" (PDF). UNWTO World Tourism Barometer. 11 (1). January 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 28 February 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
^"China – the new number one tourism source market in the world". World Tourism Organization. 4 April 2013. Archived from the original on 8 April 2013. Retrieved 9 April 2013.
^
Lenzen, Manfred; Sun, Ya-Yen; Faturay, Futu; Ting, Yuan-Peng; Geschke, Arne; Malik, Arunima (7 May 2018). "The carbon footprint of global tourism". Nature Climate Change. 8 (6). Springer Nature Limited: 522–528. Bibcode:2018NatCC...8..522L. doi:10.1038/s41558-018-0141-x. ISSN 1758-6798. S2CID 90810502. [...] between 2009 and 2013, tourism's global carbon footprint has increased from 3.9 to 4.5 GtCO2e, four times more than previously estimated, accounting for about 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Transport, shopping and food are significant contributors. The majority of this footprint is exerted by and in high-income countries.
^Tourism and the Sustainable Development Goals – Journey to 2030, Highlights. World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). 18 December 2017. doi:10.18111/9789284419340. ISBN 978-92-844-1934-0.
^"Tourism & Sustainable Development Goals – Tourism for SDGs". Retrieved 10 January 2021.
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