Problem
How many people travel? Which are the most popular places? I've always wondered.
Answer
How many people travel? Which are the most popular places? I've always wondered.
Answer
"Europe’s tourism industry employs 12 million people and generates over five percent of GDP. Europe is the world's number one tourist destination. By 2030 we can expect 800 million visitors every year. " So said, Karmenu Vella, European Commissioner for Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fish.
"But what we need is a forward-looking vision: rather than the world's ‘No.1 travel destination’, we should aspire to becoming the world's top ‘Eco-travel destination’.” A new toolkit providing smart tips for greening the hospitality sector, takeagreenstep.eu, has just been launched. The website shows hotel and restaurant owners and managers how they can improve the environmental performance of their businesses.
Hotels Helping The Environment
So we have two stories. The first is about what hotels can do to help the environment. For example, the Rafael Hotel, in London, England, is designed to use natural lighting and use rainwater. They have a policy of no plastic. Drinking water is supplied to guests in glass bottles instead of plastic bottles. The toiletries in the bathrooms attached to bedrooms have soap in wall dispensers instead of the small plastic bottles. To keep the customers happy, they upgrade the quality of the gel, which has an organic, environmentally friendly source.
Doesn't this deter customers? Apparently not. The hotel seems pretty busy, to go buy the bookings announced on the websites such as booking.com and Tripadvisor which give minute by minute updates. "This hotel has been booked XX times in the last 24 hours. XX rooms left."
The other story is the number of us who go travelling.
Let's make numbers clear and simple to understand.
Europe is the world's number one tourist destination. More than the Americas or Asia.
The European tourism industry employs 12 million people.
Who says Europe s number one? The UN. They also have tables of the most visited countries in each continent.
So we have two stories. The first is about what hotels can do to help the environment. For example, the Rafael Hotel, in London, England, is designed to use natural lighting and use rainwater. They have a policy of no plastic. Drinking water is supplied to guests in glass bottles instead of plastic bottles. The toiletries in the bathrooms attached to bedrooms have soap in wall dispensers instead of the small plastic bottles. To keep the customers happy, they upgrade the quality of the gel, which has an organic, environmentally friendly source.
Doesn't this deter customers? Apparently not. The hotel seems pretty busy, to go buy the bookings announced on the websites such as booking.com and Tripadvisor which give minute by minute updates. "This hotel has been booked XX times in the last 24 hours. XX rooms left."
The other story is the number of us who go travelling.
Let's make numbers clear and simple to understand.
Europe is the world's number one tourist destination. More than the Americas or Asia.
The European tourism industry employs 12 million people.
Who says Europe s number one? The UN. They also have tables of the most visited countries in each continent.
| Rank | Destination | International tourist arrivals (2016)[1] | International tourist arrivals (2015)[1] | Change (2015 to 2016) (%) | Change (2014 to 2015) (%) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  France | 82.6 million | 84.5 million |  2.2 |  0.9 |
| 2 |  United States | 75.6 million | 77.5 million | 2.4 | 3.3 |
| 3 |  Spain | 75.6 million | 68.5 million | 10.3 | 5.5 |
| 4 |  China | 59.3 million | 56.9 million | 4.2 | 2.3 |
| 5 |  Italy | 52.4 million | 50.7 million | 3.2 | 4.4 |
| 6 |  United Kingdom | 35.8 million | 34.4 million | 4.0 | 5.6 |
| 7 |  Germany | 35.6 million | 35.0 million | 1.7 | 6.0 |
| 8 |  Mexico | 35.0 million | 32.1 million | 8.9 | 9.4 |
| 9 |  Thailand | 32.6 million | 29.9 million | 8.9 | 20.6 |
| 10 |  Turkey | 31.3 million[citation needed] | 39.5 million | 24.6 | 0.8 |
I was surprised that France ranks so high, above the USA.
A surprise from another table is that the small island of Macau, with its casino. gets more visitors than India. Now I know why the World Travel Market, held annually in the UK at ExCel in East London, has such a large number of stands for cities and regions of France, states in the USA, and regions of Spain, China, Italy and the UK.
GDP is gross domestic product, an American term for the market worth of the production of a country in a year.
Wikipedia's useful information gets better and better. Just what I wanted to know. The tables are taken from the UN. But because I found them on Wikipedia I knew it was more likely that I would find material which was copyright free so I could reproduce it and show it to you.
Hotel Rafael, London, England
Hotel Rafael is a newish hotel, upmarket. Prices on booking.com started at £159. On Tripadvisor they had a room at £109.
The Rafael is not like Holiday Inn, which was originally designed as the answer to unpredictable Mom and Pop hotels; instead Holiday Inn had identical rooms throughout the hotel and the world, so the customer can know exactly what they were getting.
No, in Hotel Rafael the rooms vary in size and therefore in price. You pay much more for a suite with a Jacuzzi. The hotel has a spa and two restaurants. It employs some, not all, of those 12 million people in the tourism industry.
Useful Websites For Travellers
www.hotelrafael.com
https://www.booking.com/
www.tripadvisor.co.uk
https://www.visitusa.org.uk
http://www.spain.info/en_GB/
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china Advice on passports, visas, safety and etiquette for all countries, for the British. The US and other countries have websites for their nationals.
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
https://www.visitbritain.org
https://twitter.com/govisitgermany
Author
A surprise from another table is that the small island of Macau, with its casino. gets more visitors than India. Now I know why the World Travel Market, held annually in the UK at ExCel in East London, has such a large number of stands for cities and regions of France, states in the USA, and regions of Spain, China, Italy and the UK.
GDP is gross domestic product, an American term for the market worth of the production of a country in a year.
Wikipedia's useful information gets better and better. Just what I wanted to know. The tables are taken from the UN. But because I found them on Wikipedia I knew it was more likely that I would find material which was copyright free so I could reproduce it and show it to you.
Hotel Rafael, London, England
Hotel Rafael is a newish hotel, upmarket. Prices on booking.com started at £159. On Tripadvisor they had a room at £109.
The Rafael is not like Holiday Inn, which was originally designed as the answer to unpredictable Mom and Pop hotels; instead Holiday Inn had identical rooms throughout the hotel and the world, so the customer can know exactly what they were getting.
No, in Hotel Rafael the rooms vary in size and therefore in price. You pay much more for a suite with a Jacuzzi. The hotel has a spa and two restaurants. It employs some, not all, of those 12 million people in the tourism industry.
Useful Websites For Travellers
www.hotelrafael.com
https://www.booking.com/
www.tripadvisor.co.uk
https://www.visitusa.org.uk
http://www.spain.info/en_GB/
https://www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/china Advice on passports, visas, safety and etiquette for all countries, for the British. The US and other countries have websites for their nationals.
http://www.italia.it/en/home.html
https://www.visitbritain.org
https://twitter.com/govisitgermany
Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
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