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Among the world's biggest industries – with major effects

Tourism is now one of the world's most important economic sectors – and one of the most dynamic.

With more than 260 million employees and annual investments in capital projects of more than US$ 800 billion, it ranks alongside such sectors as construction and petrochemicals as one of the world's biggest industries. According to current estimates, tourism accounts for about 10.7% of the world GDP.

Given its scale and global extent, however, tourism inevitably makes an important environmental impact through resource consumption, pollution and waste generated by tourism activities, and transport.