ABSTRACT
Over the last half century, the growth and development of tourism has been undeniably remarkable. In 1950, total international tourist arrivals amounted to just over twenty-fi ve million. By 2010 that fi gure had risen to almost 935 million (UNWTO 2011) and, despite the challenges still facing the global economy, recent data point to continuing growth. At the same time, domestic tourism activity (that is, people visiting destinations within their own country) is estimated to be some six to ten times higher than international tourism. Thus, contemporary tourism is manifested in the movement, both within and across national borders, of enormous numbers of people, to the extent that even some twenty years ago it was described as “the single largest peaceful movement of people across cultural boundaries in the history of the world” (Lett 277).
