In April, Linda gave a talk at a Vancouver conference and stayed for a few days of recreation. Art enjoys semi-annual gambling trips to Las Vegas where he tests his latest system to beat the house at blackjack and roulette. Takeshi and Lorraine spent a ten day honeymoon at Hawaii's Poipu Beach in June. Whether we go by ourselves, with a companion, or 40 others on a group tour, and whether the trip is for pleasure or duty, travel is ultimately a personal experience. Because travel is personal, we often fail to realize how large, pervasive, and important it is in society.
Tourism is the world's largest industry.
Tourism grew to a giant virtually unnoticed. Travel and tourism were once limited to the wealthy, to peddlers and merchants, and the occasional religious pilgrim. In the late 19th century, a British entrepreneur, Thomas Cook, began offering package tours to seaside resorts for middle class and working class citizens. Improvements in the comfort and price of train travel, and the development of large luxury liners and hotels offering a wide range of prices helped fuel the demand for pleasure travel. The invention of the automobile and the airplane in the early twentieth century eventually led to still more opportunity for personal travel.