Over the last 20 years, international tourism arrivals have been growing consistently at an average of 4 percent per year. In the past, international tourism was seen as the purview of a relatively limited set of af uent travel- lers, whereas today the number of travellers is growing rapidly and many are originating from the expanding middle class of large emerging economies. Globally, strong economic growth has generated millions of new travel-
lers looking to purchase exceptional tourism experiences, and this trend is expected to continue. The United Nations World Tourism Organization