Booming Tourism
Newly rich and mobile travelers are pouring out of China and India. They’re sticking close to home for now, but it’s only a matter of time before they fan out across the globe, reshaping the tourist landscape. The tourism industry has reacted to the twin phenomena of travel booms in China and India by fundamentally re-examining itself. The old dichotomy between domestic and international travel has blurred in favor of a new concept called “total tourism”. It lumps all travel into one global category in which borders increasingly don’t matter. Today’s domestic tourist, goes the logic, will become tomorrow’s globe-trotter, who will return with more worldly tastes and create pressure to transform and modernize the travel industry back home.