Trends of Tourism

The World Tourism Organization forecasts that international tourism
will continue growing at the average annual rate of 4 percent [1]. By
2020 Europe will remain the most popular destination, but its share
will drop from 60 percent in 1995 to 46 percent. Long-haul will grow
slightly faster than intraregional travel and by 2020 its share will
increase from 18 percent in 1995 to 24 percent. Since e-commerce has
taken off on the internet, tourism products have become one of the most
traded items on the net. Tourism products and services have been made
available on the net at bargain prices through intermediaries. In
recent time, tourism providers (hotels, airlines, etc.)have started to
sell their services through the internet. This has put pressure on
intermediaries from both the virtual and the traditional brick and
mortar stores.
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 technlogies 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 2006, will be
built. 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.
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