Along with its cultural, leisure and recreational functions tourism contributes significantly (both directly and indirectly) to the world's economy and employment. It contributes to GDP even more than the automotive industry in all the regions throughout the globe: three times as much in Americas and two times as much in Europe, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council's 2013 research. Concerning employment, 102 million of persons worldwide, or 3.3% of the world's total employed population, were involved directly in travel and tourism industry in 2013, which is almost as much as the population of Mexico. Moreover, this figure is expected to grow to almost 200 million till 2035. In many countries tourism is the key source of jobs for their population. Thus, in Macau, one of the two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China, a half of population is employed in the travel and tourism sphere.
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In 2016, Germany, Thailand, and Hong Kong were the top destinations for international travelers while China and the United States accounted for roughly one-third of total tourism expenditures worldwide, according to the World Tourism Organization. But, as people typically visit specific cities within a country, and not the entire country, it is far more interesting to examine city-level tourism statistics. The Global Destination Cities Index, which includes city-level data on the number of overnight international visitors and their spending, reveals that Bangkok attracted the most visitors in 2016, with nearly 21.5 million visitors...
As the years pass, Americans seem to become busier and busier, leaving more vacation time unused than ever before while spending more on what vacation they do enjoy. Last year almost half of working Americans used only some of their paid vacation time, according to US Travel Association’s Project Time Off, with more than 650 million days left unused. Workers in Idaho led the country in unused vacation with almost 78 percent of available vacation time unused. During the last five years, Americans have increased their spending on leisure travel by roughly 10 percent. Notably, the number of leisure trips Americans’ have taken to overseas...