Tourism Globally

HAPPY 62nd INDEPENDENT. GREATER YEARS AHEAD NIGERIA AND NIGERIAN

Celebrating diversities of Tourism all over the world 🌍.

World Tourism Day

2022 celebration is witnessing the greatest Ministerial participation.

Tourism matters for development.

That's why leaders from all around the world gather to exchange knowledge, learn from others and set the way forward.

Join us! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-onBgbEp7Po

The emergence of COVID-19 crippled many sectors of the economy globally and the tourism sector was not exempted. As the world gradually recovers from the effects of the pandemic, it is an avenue to rethink Tourism again being one of the world's employers of labor and revenue and income generator.

Together, in 2022, let's rethink Tourism as we celebrate world tourism day on 27th September

This we are .

More inclusive.
More sustainable.
Better.

📅27 September
Bali, Indonesia

Join us! https://www.unwto.org/world-tourism-day-2022

UNWTO is looking for startups and entrepreneurs that put sustainability at the ♥ of their operations.

Time to achieve the !

Are you ready to be a game changer?

🔴Apply now!
https://unwto.org/unwto-sdgs-tourism-awakenings-challenge

Join the UNWTO team!

Take a look at the latest vacancies on UNWTO website.

📍Programme Officer

Deadline for applications: 9 September
https://www.unwto.org/work-with-us

This month with the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), we are highlighting air travel's contributions to sustainable development, employment and decent work for all!

It means that will unlock highly rewarding employment opportunities, providing important revenues to communities everywhere. 📈🌎

returns to focus on the future.

🙌🙌🙌 on 27 September, from Bali, will mark a new milestone for tourism.

It will celebrate global efforts to recover stronger and better.

Destinations around the world have proven it - a renewed tourism is possible.

Join us! 🔗https://www.unwto.org/world-tourism-day-2022

Welcome to the month of August, 2022. It's indeed a great month. Embrace it with an open mind. May August be a blessing to us all.

Diwali: Festival of Lights

Diwali, or Dipawali, is India's biggest and most important holiday of the year. The festival gets its name from the row (avali) of clay lamps (deepa) that Indians light outside their homes to symbolize the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness. This festival is as important to Hindus as the Christmas holiday is to Christians.

Over the centuries, Diwali has become a national festival that's also enjoyed by non-Hindu communities. For instance, in Jainism, Diwali marks the nirvana, or spiritual awakening, of Lord Mahavira on October 15, 527 B.C.; in Sikhism, it honors the day that Guru Hargobind Ji, the Sixth Sikh Guru, was freed from imprisonment. Buddhists in India celebrate Diwali as well.

South India celebrate Diwali as the day that Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura.

In northern India, they celebrate the story of King Rama's return to Ayodhya after he defeated Ravana by lighting rows of clay lamps.

Southern India celebrates it as the day that Lord Krishna defeated the demon Narakasura.

In western India the festival marks the day that Lord Vishnu, the Preserver (one of the main gods of the Hindu trinity) sent the demon King Bali to rule the nether world.

Diwali is celebrated over five days.

DAY ONE: People clean their homes and shop for gold or kitchen utensils to help bring good fortune.

DAY TWO: People decorate their homes with clay lamps and create design patterns called rangoli on the floor using colored powders or sand.

DAY THREE: On the main day of the festival, families gather together for Lakshmi puja, a prayer to Goddess Lakshmi, followed by mouth-watering feasts and firework festivities.

DAY FOUR: This is the first day of the new year, when friends and relatives visit with gifts and best wishes for the season.

DAY FIVE: Brothers visit their married sisters, who welcome them with love and a lavish meal.

I am happy to welcome you all to this blissful month of July, 2022.

May this month of July make no delay in delivering to you, your answers to prayers and may you fine satisfaction.

Happy New Month to you.
From Tourism Globally. It has been an awesome time all through with you.

Happy New month.
May this month bring good things out way. Amen

Happy New month. May this month of April lighten your path and bring you good Fortune's. AMEN!!!

BLACK-NECKED CRANE FESTIVAL (BHUTAN)
Celebrated in the courtyard of Gangtey Goemba, one of the oldest and largest Nyingmapa monasteries in Bhutan, the Black-necked Crane Festival draws in large crowds of locals to celebrate the arrival of the endangered birds.

These majestic birds are considered sacred and a symbol of longevity in Bhutan, where they are the subject of many folktales and songs. Images of the Black-necked Crane can also be found painted on the walls of temples across the country.

The birds’ arrival (after migrating from their summer home on the Tibetan Plateau) is widely celebrated because they’re believed to bring prosperity and bountiful harvests to the farms of the Phobjikha Valley.
The festival celebrating their arrival is a one-day event that takes place every November. It features various folk dances and songs, children dressed up in crane costumes and masks, and local school kids performing plays that raise awareness for environmental conservation.

Happy New month to everyone. Wishing you a month full of God's Love, Mercy and Grace. Greatest height this month. Amen 💵💎🙇🙇

THE JUMPING OF BABIES
Baby jumping (Spanish: El Colacho) is a traditional Spanish festival dating back to 1620. It takes place annually to celebrate the Catholic feast of Corpus Christi in Castrillo de Murcia, a village in the municipality of Sasamón in the province of Burgos. Men dressed as devils leap over rows of babies to cleanse them of sin.

WHEREAS MOST CATHOLICS ARE BAPTIZED into their religion as infants by being gently dunked under cleansing waters, absolving them of their innate original sin, in the Spanish village of Castrillo de Murcia fresh babes are laid in the street as men dressed in traditional devil costumes run around jumping over them, terrorizing onlookers.

The yearly festival known locally as “El Colacho” takes place during the village’s religious feast of Corpus Christi. No concrete origin for the bizarre ritual exists, but it dates back to at least the early 1600s. During the holiday parents with children born during the previous year bring the little tikes out and place them in neat rows of pillows spaced out down a public street. Then, while the excited parents look on, men dressed in bright yellow costumes, and grotesque masks begin filing through the crowd, whipping bystanders with switches and generally terrorizing everyone. But this is all fun and games as the main event is when these “devils” run down the street jumping over the rows of babies like Olympic hurdlers. Once the little sinners have been jumped over they are considered absolved of man’s original transgression, and they are sprinkled with rose petals before being taken away by their (likely very relieved) parents.

While there are no reports of injuries or babalities caused by the flying devils, the strange practice is frowned upon by the clergy of the Catholic Church with Pope Benedict going so far as to ask the Spanish people to distance themselves from the ritual. However El Colacho continues to take place each year.

The Brotherhood of Santísimo Sacramento de Minerva organizes the week-long festivities which culminate on Sunday when the Colacho jumps over the babies on the mattresses placed on the procession route traversing the town.

BORYEONG MUD FESTIVAL, SOUTH KOREA

ORIGINS AND HISTORY

Boryeong city is located at the coastal area in southwest of Chungcheongnam province. Boryeong has a 136km long coastline that consists of fine sea mud rich in minerals, Germanium and Bentonite, which radiate high levels of far-infrared rays and are known for the excellent effect on skin. Some researchers have even argued that Boryeong mud has more healing properties than the Dead Sea mud in Israel.

Boryeong had initiated its natural sea mud business in 1996, developing 16 mud cosmetic products, including mud packs and creams. However, the business lacked public awareness and recognition. In order to efficiently promote its products (and the city in general), Boryeong hosted its first Boryeong Mud Festival and introduced the beautiful Daecheon Beach to the world in July 1998.

The 1st Boryeong Mud Festival was held in 1998. It lasted 4 days and included 16 programs.
Contrary to the concerns that the theme of the festival is too specific and small in scale, 30 million tourists participated. It caused a ripple effect on the local economy producing more than 350 million won of profit
The mud festival was extended to 7 days from the 4th festival onwards
Boryeong successfully implanted its image as “mud capital” with the festival’s growing popularity.

Having attracted the biggest amount of foreign visitors, it was appointed as the ‘Best Festival in Korea’ in 2006 and was selected as Korea’s best festival from 2006-2008 by the Ministry of Culture Tourism. It was later named Representative festival of the Republic of Korea from 2008 to 2010

Boryeong Mud Festival was designated as "Honorary Representative Festival of Republic of Korea” since 2011 and has been titled “Global Festival” from 2015 onwards

Since 2011, various activities such as street parade, muddy mess (머드난장), mud experience facilities, mud mob scene, night performances and more, were included

Boryeong has been awarded the Pinnacle Award in the IFEA WORLD (International Festivals & Events Association) annually and the 17th Boryeong Mud Festival received its 10th consecutive Pinnacle Award thus being recognized as a true global festival

In 2014, the 17th Boryeong Mud Festival was visited by a total of 329 million tourists with 280,000 international visitors producing 65.4 billion won of profit

The wonders and amusements of tourism activities and it's economic contributions can not be overemphasize.
However, some of these activities would sometimes wonder how they came about and for what purpose (s).
So, I'll be bringing to our knowledge some of the weird and bizarre Cultural Tourism in the world, well known.

Happy New Year to everyone. Wishing you a blissful 2022.
Is just a start of the year, don't give up too soon, don't relent, don't be tire to do again and again as the best is yet to come.
A heartfelt love to you all from Tourism Globally.

Let be your excitement in 2022 and help us to serve you better

EWA AGOYIN (EWA AGANYIN)

This recipe came to Nigeria through the influence of the Agoyin People from Cotonou in Lagos and Nigerians have gladly accepted this meal.The term 'Ewa Agoyin' was coined from Ewa, meaning beans in Yoruba, and Agoyin, which is a tribe in Benin Republic or a general term used by Nigerians to refer to Beninese and Togolese people.

Ewa Agoyin was therefore used to describe the type of beans prepared by these people of Togolese and Beninese origins.

It was first introduced into the Nigerian diet by the first generation of Agoyin people migrating to Nigeria far back as the sixties. It became more popular in Lagos in the 80s’, until its fame spread like wildfire over Africa in the mid-nineties.

It's such a classic that it has become a regular victim of gentrification.

Recreating a much loved classic
Ewa Agoyin (Ewa Aganyin) is a very popular street food, especially on Lagos streets in Nigeria and it is very easy to prepare at home. It is made by boiling Beans until it’s really tender then mashing it.

This delicious meal is The term 'Ewa Agoyin' was coined from Ewa, meaning beans in Yoruba, and Agoyin, which is a tribe in Benin Republic or a general term used by Nigerians to refer to Beninese and Togolese people.

Ewa Agoyin was therefore used to describe the type of beans prepared by these people of Togolese and Beninese origins.

It's such a classic that, chili pepper, and lot of onions.

3. Pounded Yam
This is a very soft food served in several Nigerian homes and restaurants. It can be enjoyed with a variety of soups such as Ogbono, Egusi, vegetable, and Afang soups. The prepare Pounded Yam, the desired quantity of yam is peeled, washed thoroughly, and boiled to tenderness.

This boiled yam is then pounded in a mortar until a soft mash is formed. The people of Western Nigeria, called the Yorubas, are known to be very fond of pounded yam, but it is also eaten among the Igbo people of Eastern Nigeria.

2. Garri
This is undoubtedly the popular staple food eaten in Nigeria. It is consumed in the majority of the households in Nigeria, irrespective of region or ethnicity. Garri is prepared from cassava. The cassava is first harvested, peeled, washed, and ground.

The grounded cassava is drained of water, some starch and hydrocyanic acid before it is sieved and fried in a hot pan. The result of this process is called garri.

Garri can then be used to prepare Eba simply by adding hot water into a bowl containing the desired quantity of garri granules. Eba can be eaten with any Nigerian soup such as Egusi soup, Okro soup, Banga soup, Afang soup, etc.

Hello there, I will be taking you through some of the Nigeria's finest delicacies.
Do you want to take your taste buds on a spectacular journey? If your answer is ‘yes’, then you need to visit Nigeria. As a West African country with a wide variety of ethnic communities, Nigeria has a varied and rich culinary tradition.

They have a myriad delicacies depending on what part of the country a person is. Numerous ingredients and staples cut across state borders as well.

Nigeria has one of the best cuisines in the world, which comprises dishes or food items obtained from the numerous ethnic group that makes up the country. Nigerian cuisine like those of other West African countries such as Ghana and the Benin Republic contains spices and herbs alongside palm or groundnut oil to produce deeply-flavored sauces and soups with an enticing aroma.

Rice is consumed in every part of the country either prepared as coconut rice, jollof rice, and fried rice or processed into the traditional dish Pate, which is a combination of rice with ground dry corn, spinach, tomatoes, onion, peppers, garden eggs, locust beans, groundnuts, biscuit bones, and minced meat.

Pate is commonly eaten in northwestern Nigerian states such as Kano, Kaduna, Nasarawa, and Plateau.

Some of the top soups consumed in the various regions of the country include Banga soup, Miyan Kuka, Okro soup, Ewedu soup, Pepper soup, Egusi soup, Afang, and Edikan Ikon soup. The ingredients used to prepare these soups range from local condiments such as processed locust beans (Iru), to vegetables such as spinach, waterleaf, bitter leaf, and pumpkin leaves.

These soups are generally eaten with ‘swallow’, starchy foods such as fufu, Eba, amala, starch, pounded yam, etc. Due to international influence in the Nigerian food culture by Portuguese, British, Dutch, and other European traders in the early days, spices such as Thyme, Curry, Ginger, Nutmeg, Cloves, Habanero pepper, and Scotch Bonnet are used.

Nigerian dishes never run out of protein. Various meats such as beef, mutton, and chicken and different species of fish are often used to garnish it to your relish. Also common in the southern regions of the country is the use of seafood such as prawns, periwinkles, clams, snails, and crabs for preparing soups and stews. These dishes will blow your taste buds!

1. Jollof Rice
This is one of the most popular foods in Nigeria and is eaten in every part of the country. You may wonder what it is that can be so highly rated and it will shock you to know that it is simply rice prepared with tomato, onion, pepper, and some other spices.

It is sometimes served with vegetables, chicken or beef and fried fish. This dish is not only popular in Nigeria but also in some other West African countries such as Ghana.

TOURISM (OVERVIEW)

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 non-work activity. This reflects a growing interest in what people consume in these non-work 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 part in. The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) estimate that travel and tourism as economic activities generates around US$6 billion, which is expected to grow to US$10 billion by 2015. At a global scale, travel and tourism supports around 235 million jobs: this is equivalent to 8 per cent of world employment and 9 per cent of world GDP.

Therefore, the growing international significance of tourism can be explained in many ways. In an introductory text such as this, it is important to stress at the outset the following types of factors and processes in order to illustrate the reasons why tourism assumes an important role not only in our lives but also globally:

• tourism is a discretionary activity (people are not required to undertake it as a basic need to survive, unlike consuming food and water)
• tourism is of growing economic significance at a global scale, with growth rates in excess of the rate of economic growth for many countries
• many governments see tourism as offering new employment opportunities in a growing sector that is focused on service industries and may assist in developing and modernizing the economy
• tourism is increasingly becoming associated with quality of life issues as it offers people the opportunity to take a break away from the complexities and stresses of everyday life and work – it provides the context for rest, relaxation and an opportunity to do something different
• tourism is becoming seen as a basic right in the developed, Westernized industrialized countries and it is enshrined in legislation regarding holiday entitlement – the result is many people associate holiday entitlement with the right to travel on holiday
• in some less developed countries, tourism is being advocated as a possible solution to poverty (described as ‘pro-poor’ tourism)
• holidays are a defining feature of non-work for many workers
• global travel is becoming more accessible in the developed world for all classes of people with the rise of low-cost airlines and cut-price travel fuelling a new wave of demand for tourism in the new millennium. This is potentially replicating the demand in the 1960s and 1970s for new popular forms of mass tourism. Much of that earlier growth was fuelled by access to cheap transport (i.e. the car and air travel) and this provided new leisure opportunities in the Western world and more recently in the developing world and newly industrializing countries
• consumer spending on discretionary items such as travel and tourism is being perceived as a less costly item in household budgets. It is also much easier to finance tourism with the rapid rise in credit card spending in developed countries, increasing access to travel opportunities and participation in tourism
• technology such as the internet has made booking travel-related products easy and placed it within the reach of a new generation of computer-literate consumers who are willing to get rid of much of the traditional ritual of going to a travel agent to book the annual holiday. Such technology now opens many possibilities for national and international travel at the click of a computer mouse and to check-in for a flight via a mobile phone.
It is evident that tourism is also becoming a powerful process affecting all parts of the globe. It is not only embraced by various people as a new trend, a characteristic or defining feature of people’s lives, but is also an activity in which the masses can now partake (subject to their access to discretionary forms of spending). This discretionary activity is part of wider post-war changes in the Western society with the rise in disposable income and spending on consumer goods and services. Yet tourism is not just a post-war phenomenon as it can be traced back through time as shown in Chapter 2. This highlights how important tourism was in past societies as well as the historical processes of continuity and change which help us to understand tourism development throughout the book. The first major wave of growth in consumer spending was in home ownership, then in car ownership and, then, in accessing tourism and international travel. In fact international travel (and domestic travel, i.e. within a country) is a defining feature of the consumer society. Whilst the car has given more people access to tourism and leisure opportunities within their own country, reductions in the price of aeroplane tickets have made international travel and tourism products and services more widely available. For example, the number of air travellers in the UK is expected to rise to 475 million by 2030. This is not without its environmental cost.

How Not to Be Stupid From among the numerous
inevitabilities in life

There are
two that occur at opposite ends
of any human being’s lifetime.
The first is when a parent’s
hands or kind words are shielding us from a misstep, or
some other unperceived
menace. The second is when
our own wrinkled hands are
holding up a contemplative
chin, wishing we knew then what we know now. Life is
what happens in between
these two points on a
pendulum. It’s my life! Leave me alone! I have a right to make my own
mistakes! We have come across any one,
or all three of these statements,
bellowed by an infuriated
teenager at a bewildered,
helpless parent. Thankfully, for
most Ethiopians these are scenes that we appreciate from
the safe distance of a sofa in
front of a television screen or a
folding, cushioned seat at the
local cinema. We typically don’t
talk to a parent in this manner; perhaps out of respect or
maybe because of the most
basic human instinct – survival;
fear for one’s life. Nevertheless, every teenager
has wished to say these things
to a parent. And, every parent
has dreaded hearing them
(even while clutching a cane or
a belt). Therefore, examining each of these ridiculous
statements may help save both
the teenager and parent much
pain and bitterness.It’s my life! Dear lost teenager, please think
this through. When lost, one
should always look down – and
voilà, there shall you find
thyself. Look at the sneakers on
your feet, the pants sagging halfway to your knees or that
skirt that is cut just too high (in
fact I wish more boys would
hike and more girls would sag…
alas that is a different article).
Keep looking to the watch or bracelet, braces, bed sheet and
bed; bedroom too, if you will,
house, garden and car. Which
of these things did you
contribute to purchasing? What
is it that you can show, to prove that this indeed is your life? In fact, were it not
for the seed or womb supplied
by the parents standing right in
front of you, YOU WOULD NOT
EXIST. So please, do the world a
favor and say yes sir or yes mother and live a happy life! Leave me alone! Listen, the only things left alone
in this world are the things we
do not care about; they are the
things destined to whittle up
and die. Think of yourself as a
plant and your parents as the hands that water, shade and
prune. Obviously, you do not
want to be left alone without
water or food – no, you are
more than happy to sit down at
the table and be fed the food that you probably didn’t have a
hand in preparing. You also
don’t mind the warm bed on a
rainy day, or that roof you don’t
give a second thought to,
right? But when it comes to pruning, well, then you are off
your rocker and this is World
War 3. Guess what happens to
plants that are not pruned: 1)
they have a decimated lifespan,
2) they produce increasingly dull blooms, 3) they grow
wildly and unattractively, and
4) they cannot multiply. So the
next time you decide to say, or
even think the words leave me
alone, remember that what you are asking for is to become a
bore that bounces around from
place to place, or job to job
annoying people. But hey, at
least that way, you will not live
very long and there won’t be other parts of this world that
will see more of you. I have a right to make my own
mistakes! No, you do not! And the reason
you do not is because once
again your teenage brain has
not thought this statement
through enough to create a
complete clause. Whether it is same-s*x marriage, abortion,
pre-marital s*x, everyone
seems to be talking about
rights. Well, here’s the rub: a
right does not mean much until
the person exercising or neglecting that right
understands its consequences
and is willing to pay the price.
The question is not whether
you have the right to do what
you want or not – clearly everyone in this internet age is
going zillion miles a minute,
and everything is now or
never. The problem is not in
the doing, it is in the thinking
and the acceptance of responsibility for the
consequences. No sane parent would argue
that experience is not the best
teacher. It truly is. Yet, what
so few stop to ask before
barging through life making
mistakes is this: do I know the consequences and am I willing
to live with them? If we did
think about the consequences
of our right to make mistakes
then many of us would have
not taken that fork in the road that led to heartache,
heartbreak and bitterness.
Instead that wrinkled hand
holding up a contemplative chin
would be resolute and not
regretful, as our eyes gaze out on a life well lived, knowing
that we really did know then
what we know now. In short, listen to your parents,
stupid!

TRAVEL AND SUSTAINABILITY IN TOURISM

There is a growing global concern about the ability of the earth’s environment and resources to sustain the continued expansion of economic activity, including tourism. Whilst scientists have pointed to these concerns since the 1960s, these environmental issues have only really begun to permeate government and people’s thinking since the rise of global concerns over climate change and the international Kyoto Treaty seeking to address greenhouse gas emissions. Tourism is the centre stage in these concerns because travel for leisure purposes is not a fundamental necessity, and it contributes to CO2 emissions through the consumption of fossil fuels used to transport people on holiday, at the destination and in the accommodation they use. Transportation causes around 75 per cent of the CO2 emissions generated by tourism, with aviation responsible for around 40 per cent of these emissions. Improving energy efficiency in transportation may be expected to generate a reduction of 32 per cent in the emissions per passenger kilometre between 2005 and 2035. However, the quantity of emissions varies depending on the mode of transport used, with long-haul travel the greatest contributor to highly emission-intense trips.

The issue of tourist travel and its global environmental effect through pollution is a thorny issue since tourism is internationally significant and has an important role in society, as we have already seen. There is an almost unanimous reluctance among government policy-makers to directly limit or restrict tourist travel due to its economic effects on destination areas. Consequently, many prefer to adopt the politically acceptable and palatable adaptation strategies – seeking to adapt human behaviour and destinations to the effects of climate change (see Box 1.1 ). Many people openly admit to being supportive of ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ principles but are unwilling to sacrifice their annual or additional holiday to reduce carbon emissions: likewise, few are willing to sacrifice an overseas destination for a less carbon consumptive and polluting domestic holiday. This assumes a more interesting dimension when one sees some sections of the tourism industry responding to consumer interest in green issues, by offering more ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ holidays, recognizing a business opportunity. Critics have labelled this harnessing of green issues as one way of gaining a competitive edge without a complete commitment to implementing sustainability principles in their business practices as ‘greenwash’.

THE LEISURE SOCIETY

Tourism is now widely acknowledged as a social phenomenon, as the nature of society in most advanced developed countries has now changed from one which has traditionally had an economy based on manufacturing and production, to one where the dominant form of employment is services and consumer industries (i.e. those based on producing consumer goods and services). At the same time, many countries have seen the amount of leisure time and paid holiday entitlement for their workers increase in the post-war period so that workers now have the opportunity to engage in the new forms of consumption such as tourism. These changes have been described as being part of what has been termed as the leisure society, a term coined in the 1970s by sociologists. They were examining the future of work and the way in which society was changing, as traditional forms of employment were disappearing and new service-related employment, increased leisure time and new working habits emerged (e.g. flexi-time and part-time work). Some commentators described this as a ‘leisure shock’ in the 1980s since many workers were still not prepared for the rise in leisure time and how to use it.

As society has passed from the stage of industrialization to one now described as post-industrial, where new technologies and ways of communicating and working have evolved, sociologists such as Baudrillard (1998) in The Consumer Society: Myths and Structures, have argued that we have moved from a society where work and production have been replaced by one which leisure and consumption now dominate. This has been reflected in social changes, such as the rise of new middle classes in many developed and developing countries, and these middle classes have a defining feature, which is the concern with leisure lifestyles and consumption. The new-found wealth among the growing middle class has been increasingly spent on leisure items and tourism is an element of this (e.g. in 1911, 1 per cent of the population had 70 per cent of wealth; this dropped to 40 per cent in 1960 and 23 per cent in 2002 in the UK). The international growth in holidaytaking is directly related to this new middle class. The increasing mobility of this group has been reflected in a massive growth globally in their propensity to travel and the growth of a society focused on leisure, of which tourism is prioritized as a key element of their household budgets and as a form of conspicuous consumption as the following statistics suggest:

• factors promoting these changes include cheaper air fares and changing patterns of personal expenditure. For example, The Family Spending Survey 2008 (published in 2009) by the Office for National Statistics found that household spending in the UK included £60.10 a week on recreation and culture, ranked second to transport at £63.40. This recreational spending included £13.60 a week spent on overseas package holidays and 1.10p on UK-based package holidays: this is over four times the amount spent in real terms in 1968. In 2009, this amounted to £378 million spent by UK residents on holidays
• the amount spent on overseas holidays has increased since 1971, when 6.7 million trips were taken rising to 68.2 million overseas trips in 2008, with those in managerial and professional employment (the new middle classes) spent double that of other employed classes
• in the period 1980–2008, there was a 204 per cent increase in the number of air passengers at UK airports, with the number of domestic passengers rising from 7.5 to 22.8 million. Similarly, the number of overseas passengers increased by 342 per cent from 42.9 to 189.8 million, despite recording a slight decrease on 2007 figures.
This snapshot of the UK shows that tourism is a major element of the leisure spending of households and tourist travel to the UK is a major driver of the economy. The growing significance of travel and tourism in the household spending reflects what researchers have described as ‘leisure lifestyles’.

Interest in tourism in Europe, North America and other parts of the world has been given an added boost by the impact of new technology such as the internet and the worldwide web, which has rendered knowledge and awareness of tourism and the opportunities to travel worldwide more accessible. The worldwide web has been used as a medium to portray travel options and the product offerings of destinations, so that people can search and explore travel options at a global scale from the ease of a computer terminal. In Europe, the impact of this new technology in the early years of the twenty-first century has generated a new tourism boom akin to the rise in international tourism in the 1970s, with new forms of technology and the supply of cheaper forms of travel (i.e. the low-cost airlines) fostering this demand. Over 90 per cent of some low cost airline bookings are now made online which illustrates the power of the internet and its role in reaching a new customer base in the tourism sector. This has given rise to the rise of e-tourism, which is the digitization of all elements in the tourism supply chain1 , whereby the supply and demand for tourism can be met through new virtual forms of distribution such as the worldwide web, as opposed to conventional methods such as travel agents and paper brochures. This has certainly revolutionized tourism and the access to travel knowledge and information, hitherto largely within the confines of travel agents and travel organizers: now everyone can be their own travel agent if they have access to the technology.

Other commentators have also pointed to the changing sophistication of tourists as consumers, especially the middle classes with their pursuit of authentic and unique experiences. This is part of what Pine and Gilmore (1999) identified as the experience economy which is the next stage in the evolution of society from a service economy. They argue that businesses need to create experiences which create a sensation, can personalize the experience to build a relationship with the consumer and they suggest four areas of experience that we need to focus on:

• entertainment
• education
• esthetic (i.e. an ability to immerse oneself in something) and
• escapism in what is consumed.
This has major implications for the types of tourism experience we develop now and in the future and it has gained momentum with the growth of the internet that now allows consumers to seek out these experiences globally.