ABSTRACT

Travel and tourism is the world’s largest industry and also represents the top three industries in many countries (Goeldner, Ritchie, and McIntosh, 2000). In 2000, the travel and tourism industry accounted for US$ 474 billion with 697 million international arrivals (World Tourism Organization, 2002). In the same year, the United States of America was the top earner of international tourism receipts (US$ 82 billion) that represented about 18% of total world market share. A record number of 50.9 million (7.3% of world market share) international tourists visited the US, whereby Canada (14.6 million), Mexico (10.3 million), Japan (5.1 million), the United Kingdom (4.7 million) and Germany (1.8 million) were the top five countries of visitor origination (American Hotel and Lodging Association, 2001). Besides inbound tourism, the US generated 35.4 million outbound trips by air, which resulted in US$ 65 billion (13.7% of world market share) in tourist spending in 2000 (World Tourism Organization, 2001). In addition, total domestic person-trips (person traveling 50 miles one way or more away from home and/or overnight) was registered at 998 million for 2000, in which 75% was related to leisure travel (pleasure, personal, other), 14% was business and 8% was combined business/pleasure (Travel Industry Association, 2001a).