Tourism is travel for recreation, leisure, religious, family or business purposes, usually for a

limited duration. Tourism is commonly associated with international travel, but may also refer
to travel to another place within the same country. The World Tourism Organization defines
tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not
more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".[1]

Tourism has become a popular global leisure activity. Tourism can be domestic or
international, and international tourism has both incoming and outgoing implications on a
country's balance of payments. Today, tourism is a major source of income for many
countries, and affects the economy of both the source and host countries, in some cases
being of vital importance.

Tourism suffered as a result of a strong economic slowdown of the late-2000s recession,

between the second half of 2008 and the end of 2009, and the outbreak of the H1N1 influenza
virus,[2][3] but slowly recovered. International tourism receipts (the travel item in the balance
of payments) grew to US$1.03 trillion (740 billion) in 2011, corresponding to an increase in
real terms of 3.8% from 2010.[4] International tourist arrivals surpassed the milestone of 1
billion tourists globally for the first time in 2012,[5] the same year in which China became the
largest spender in international tourism globally with US$102 billion, surpassing Germany
and United States. China and emerging markets such as Russia and Brazil had significantly
increased their spending over the previous decade