4. Future of tourism and aviation

The travel and tourism industry employs 72 million people worldwide. Global tourism expenditure is estimated to be nearly US$ 3 trillion. Tourism accounts directly for 3.8% of worlds GDP. Tourism is expected to maintain its growth by 2014, the World Travel and Tourism Council expects the torsion industry to employ more than 84 million people globally.

Tourism as an upcoming industry
The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) forecasts that international tourism will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 %. By 2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share will drop from 60 % in 1995 to 46 %. Long haul will grow slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will increase from 18 % in 1995 to 24 %.
With the advent of e-commerce, tourism products have become one of the most traded items on the Internet. Tourism products and services have been made available through intermediaries, although tourism providers (hotels, airlines, etc.) can sell their services directly. This has put pressure on intermediaries from both on-line and traditional shops.
It has been suggested there is a strong correlation between Tourism expenditure per capita and the degree to which countries play in the global context. Not only as a result of the important economic contribution of the tourism industry, but also as an indicator of the degree of confidence with which global citizens leverage the resources of the globe for the benefit of their local economies.

Space tourism is expected to "take off" in the first quarter of the 21st century, although compared with traditional destinations the number of tourists in orbit will remain low until technologies such as a space elevator make space travel cheap.

Technological improvement is likely to make possible air-ship hotels, based either on solar-powered airplanes or large dirigibles. Underwater hotels, such as Hydropolis, expected to open in Dubai in 2009. On the ocean tourists will be welcomed by ever larger cruise ships and perhaps floating cities.

Some futurists expect that movable hotel "pods" will be created that could be temporarily erected anywhere on the planet, where building a permanent resort would be unacceptable politically, economically or environmentally.

List of flown space tourists
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All five space tourists flew to and from the International Space Station on Soyuz spacecraft through the space tourism company, Space Adventures: as follows:-
Dennis Tito (American): April 28 - May 6, 2001
Mark Shuttleworth (South African / British): April 25 - May 5, 2002
Gregory Olsen (American): October 1 - October 11, 2005
Anousheh Ansari (Iranian / American): September 18 - September 29, 2006
Charles Simonyi (Hungarian / American): April 7 - April 21, 2007