Low season travel
Why low season travel matters
By Ged Brown, CEO at Low Season Traveller Travel has always been fun. When I first started out in the travel industry as a travel agent, my manager told me that we were responsible for looking after people’s dreams. He reminded me that other than a house or a car, tourism or ‘holidays’ account for the single largest purchase anyone makes in any given year. Our holidays and vacations are what we live for. They represent our time to escape the ‘everyday’ and open our eyes to new experiences. The United Nations World Tourism Organisation or UNWTO, have a wonderful graphic which shows why tourism is more than a merely frivolous pursuit. It matters greatly…to a great many people around the world.
Low Season Traveller
Most in the travel industry focus on the hard measurable impacts of tourism: the fact that it accounts for 1 in 10 jobs worldwide, is worth $1.6 trillion in exports, accounts for 10% of the world’s GDP and 7% of the world’s exports.
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Personally, I have always been more interested in the so-called ‘softer’ impacts of tourism. It helps small local economies which are reliant on tourism, it helps to protect and preserve our cultural heritage, it helps to protect our nature and wildlife and it helps engender peace and harmony in the world. The more we travel, the more we understand the world around us and our place in that world. Travel is quite literally, the best education.
Source: UNWTO
