Geography · Ch 6 — Tertiary and Quaternary Activities
Tourism
Tourism
Tourism is travel undertaken for recreation, not for business. It has grown into the world’s single largest tertiary activity, measured both by total registered jobs and by total revenue.
The scale is enormous: tourism provides 250 million jobs globally and contributes 40 per cent of the total GDP of the world economy. Beyond these headline numbers, many local people are employed to serve tourists directly — in accommodation, meals, transport, entertainment, and speciality shops that cater to visitors.
Tourism also has a strong multiplier effect on the wider economy. It fosters the growth of infrastructure industries (roads, airports, hotels), retail trading, and craft industries that produce souvenirs. In other words, a tourist’s spending does not just support the travel agent or the hotel; it ripples through construction, local manufacturing, and small businesses. …
This black-and-white photograph shows a snow-covered mountain slope, likely in the Swiss Alps. A scattered group of tourists — some standing, some likely preparing to ski — is visible on the snow. A flag pole is planted into the slope, marking the spot.
The image directly illustrates the core idea of tourism as a tertiary activity: people travel to a specific location (here, a mountain in Switzerland) for recreation, not business. The snow and skis make it clear that this is winter tourism, which depends on favourable weather conditions — exactly the seasonal pattern the textbook describes. The presence of a group of tourists, rather than a single traveller, hints at the scale of the industry: tourism is the world’s single largest tertiary activity, employing 250 million people and contributing 40 per cent of global GDP.
What the photograph does not show is equally important. You don't see the hotels, restaurants, transport services, or souvenir shops that support these tourists. The textbook explains that many local people are employed to provide accommodation, meals, transport, entertainment, and special shops. The flag pole itself is a small piece of infrastructure — it marks a ski run or a meeting point, a service that someone installed and maintains. So the figure captures the visible moment of recreation, while the text asks you to think about the invisible network of tertiary services that makes that moment possible. …