The largest industry in the world

Tourism has become the largest industry in the world.

First of all, tourism, as the largest industry in the world, has experienced a long historical development process.

Modern tourism came into being in the19th century, and gained unprecedented development in the 20th century. Especially after the Second World War, tourism has gained a relatively peaceful and stable development environment and quickly became a new industry. 1950, the number of tourists in the world was only 25.2 million, and the tourism income was about 2 1 100 million dollars. Since then, the world tourism industry has grown at an average annual rate of 10%, and its value-added level is significantly higher than other industries. For example, during the period of 1992, the added value of American tourism was $330 billion, far higher than that of agriculture, automobile industry and metal industry. Germany, France, Britain, Japan and other developed countries are similar to the United States. According to the information provided by the World Tourism Organization, since the 1990s, the proportion of international tourism income in the world export income has reached 8.25%, exceeding the oil export income of 6.5%, the automobile export income of 5.6% and the electromechanical export income of 4.6%. Since then, tourism has officially established its position as the largest industry in the world and has remained so far.

Second, the international financial crisis has not changed the status of tourism as the world's largest industry.

Tourism has the ability to resist shocks and is easy to recover, which plays a special role in resolving the impact of the international financial crisis and expanding domestic demand. According to the report of the World Tourism Organization, although the international financial crisis has seriously affected some industries and fields in mature tourism markets such as Europe and the United States, the tourism industry in emerging economies and developing countries has maintained overall growth. Tourism has become one of the first industries to resume growth in the international financial crisis, which has played a positive role in alleviating the negative impact of the crisis and made new contributions to the global economic recovery. In the long run, tourism will continue to play a leading role in creating employment opportunities and promoting global economic growth. According to the forecast of the World Tourism Council (WTTC), in 20 10, tourism will attract10.8 trillion US dollars of capital investment, accounting for 12% of the global total investment. By 2020, the global international tourism consumption income will reach 2 trillion US dollars. According to the forecast of the World Tourism Association, from 20 10 to 2020, the expected annual growth rate of the global tourism economy will reach 4.4%, and the number of international tourists and international tourism income will increase at an average annual rate of 4.3% and 6.7% respectively, which is much higher than the average annual growth rate of the world wealth of 3% in the same period. By 2020, tourism revenue will increase to 16 trillion US dollars, equivalent to10% of global GDP; It will provide 300 million jobs, accounting for 9.2% of the total global employment, thus further consolidating its position as the world's largest industry.

Third, tourism is the basic feature of the world's largest industry.

First of all, tourism plays an important role in the world economic system. In 2009, tourism revenue accounted for 9.3% of global GDP; Tourism employs about 200 million people, accounting for 8% of the total employment in the world. Tourism is also the main source of world tax revenue. In 2006, the total tax revenue directly and indirectly generated by global tourism was 1.3 trillion US dollars, accounting for 1 1% of the total global tax revenue. Whether it is total income, employment, investment or tax payment, tourism plays an important role in the economic development of all countries in the world.

Second, tourism has become people's basic way of life. With the development of economy and the improvement of living standards, people's demand for spiritual culture has further increased. The continuous progress of science and technology has greatly improved the social labor productivity and given people more time. In this case, tourism has become one of the best choices for people to use their leisure time. In recent years, international tourism has been widely developed in many countries and quickly formed a new trend of the times. According to the statistics of the World Tourism Organization, people participate in various forms of tourism activities every year, reaching more than 4 billion person-times. It is predicted that in 20 10, 20 15 and 2020, the number of international tourists will reach 10 billion, 12 billion and 16 billion respectively. International tourists will account for 3.5% of the world's total population, among which Germany, Japan, Britain, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Russia and Italy will account for 49.2% of global tourists.

Third, the focus of international tourist areas is shifting to the east. Before 1980s, western developed countries almost monopolized the international tourism market, and the number of tourists and tourism revenue accounted for about 90% of the world total. In 1990s, there appeared six international tourism market patterns in the world, including Europe, America, Asia-Pacific region, Africa, Middle East and South Asia. The formation of this market model system marks the arrival of the era of tourism popularization. In particular, the annual growth rate of international tourism in East Asia and the Pacific reaches 7.5%, which is much higher than that in other parts of the world. With the acceleration of the shift of tourism focus from traditional markets to emerging markets, the share of international tourism market in Europe and America has been shrinking, and the Asia-Pacific region has become a hot spot of international tourism.

Fourth, tourism consumption demand is developing in a diversified direction. Tourism consumption demand is a concentrated reflection of the development level of productive forces, which is influenced and restricted by a series of factors such as social form, values, behavior orientation, politics, science, culture and personal class, education, experience, occupation, personality, gender and interest. Looking at the development of world tourism, people's tourism consumption demand pattern has experienced a development process from single sightseeing-sightseeing-holiday-demand diversification. With the development of personalized and liberalized tourism mode, traditional sightseeing, vacation and business tourism can no longer meet the needs of tourists, and various innovative and unique tourism modes and projects have emerged. At present, the basic trend of international tourism consumption demand is: from the perspective of people's travel organization, under the wave of pursuing individuality, personal travel, especially family travel, has become a global fashion trend; From the perspective of tourism motivation and purpose, eco-tourism, cultural tourism, incentive tourism, adventure tourism, scientific research tourism, diving tourism and other forms of theme tourism constitute the main theme of people's travel abroad.

Fifth, competition and cooperation coexist in the international tourism market. The international tourism market contains unlimited business opportunities and has become one of the most competitive markets. In order to enhance the competitiveness of tourism, some countries and regions have formed close cooperative relations with neighboring countries, learned from each other's advanced technology and management experience, conducted joint promotion in the same tourism market, and conducted unified training and rotation training for personnel, thus accelerating the pace of regional tourism cooperation and regional tourism integration. At the same time, in view of the sensitivity of tourism, countries around the world and international tourism organizations have further established and improved tourism cooperation and development mechanisms to cope with the negative impact of natural disasters, disease epidemics and economic crises on tourism and achieve resource sharing, complementary advantages and coordinated development.