A 24-hour-a-day, 7-day-week, 52-week-a-year-economic driver
Responsible for 10.2 percent of world gross domestic product (GDP)
Employer of 214 million people, or 7.8 percent of the global workforce
Creation of more than 5.5 million travel and tourism jobs per year
during the 2000s
Spending on tourism in the United States in $72.3 billion
Leading producer of tax revenues
Forecasted 4.6 percent growth between 2006 and 2015