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English Audio Request

Dominic_B
491 Words / 1 Recordings / 0 Comments
Note to recorder:

American accent and a bit slower than natural speed, please.

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The world has shrunk dramatically over the past 60 years, because people can travel farther, faster, and cheaper than ever before. Distant destinations that once took weeks to reach by ship are a few hours away by airplane. Exotic places that people used to only dream of or read about in books are as close as the nearest travel agency or online booking service. Luxurious locations on the Mediterranean are affordable. Exciting adventures in the Amazon Rainforest or in the Himalayas are possible. Cultural immersion experiences for sightseers and globetrotters are available, all because of one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries: tourism.

Despite the dips and swings caused by political turmoil, economic downturns, and natural disasters, tourism’s growth rate is not about to slow down. The number of tourists traveling every year has exploded from 25 million in 1950 to 939 million in 2010. For 2020, the World Tourism Organization estimates 1.56 billion international arrivals and an annual growth rate of 4 percent. Growth rates in increasingly popular developing countries are projected to surpass 6 percent a year through 2020. South Asia’s annual growth rate has already reached 6.2 percent, and by 2020, Asia is expected to be second only to Europe as the most popular tourist destination.

Making up 11.4 percent of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2005, tourism has become a major economic player for developed and developing nations alike. In France and the United States, international tourism’s top two destinations, tourism accounts for 6 percent and 2.7 percent, respectively, of those countries’ GDP. For countries such as Mexico, Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, and Kenya, which depend heavily on tourism for employment and development opportunities, as well as for revenue and foreign investment, tourism can constitute 10 percent of GDP. For small Caribbean and Pacific islands, tourism can account for as much 40 percent of GDP. Smaller and poorer countries depend on tourism as a major source of employment and as their only means of economic diversification.

The future of the fourth-largest global export activity (after fuels, chemicals, and automotive products) looks bright for travelers, airlines, commercial tour operators, hotel chains, hospitality businesses, and governments—but what about the future of coral reefs, sandy beaches, national parks, and the pristine natural treasures that attract experience-hungry tourists by the thousands? The red flags are already appearing: quaint fishing villages turned into sprawling tourist playgrounds, shorelines ribboned with high-rise hotels, agricultural fields plowed under and converted into golf courses, coastal waters polluted with sewage, beaches littered with garbage, and noisy streets plagued by traffic congestion. To make way for airports, roads, and tourist complexes, forests have been cleared, fragile ecosystems destroyed, wildlife dispersed or decimated, and indigenous peoples displaced and dispossessed.

If tourism’s growth is unstoppable, can it continue on an upward path, or must it take a gentler, more sustainable course? Is there a different kind of tourism that lets everyone have their cake and eat it too?

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