ABSTRACT

The new millennium has witnessed the continued growth of interest in how people spend their spare time, especially their leisure time and non-work time. Some commentators have gone as far as to suggest that it is leisure time – how we use it and its meaning to individuals and families – that defines our lives, as a focus for nonwork activity. This reflects a growing interest in what people consume in these nonwork periods, particularly those times that are dedicated to travel and holidays which are more concentrated periods of leisure time. This interest is becoming an international phenomenon known as ‘tourism’: the use of this leisure time to visit different places, destinations and localities which often (but not exclusively) feature in the holidays and trips people take in. For example, in 2005 the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimated that travel and tourism as economic activities generated US$6201 billion which is expected to grow to US$10 678.5 billion by 2015. This equates to a 4.6 per cent growth in the demand for travel and tourism per annum, which is far in excess of the scale and pace of growth in the economies of most countries. At a global scale, the economic effects of travel and tourism are estimated by WTTC to be responsible for 214 000 000 jobs: this is equivalent to 8.3 per cent of world employment. In 2005 tourism represented 10.4 per cent of total personal consumption, while it accounted for over 9 per cent of all global capital investment and 10 per cent of world GDP.