Travel has always been a luxury of the well-situated, urban population mostly from Western countries. The increase in average incomes and the fall in levels of absolute poverty are resulting in the growing size of the so-called middle class; the world's population that is neither rich nor poor by each national standard. The middle class is set to increase from 1.8 billion in 2009 to 3.2 billion by 2020 and 4.9 billion by 2030. This rise in the middle class will alter the profile of the international traveller. Middle class population, in billion, by years