gency designed to get more American tourist and business input into Taiwan, explains that much of Taiwan's projected tourist traffic will be coming from "spillover" from Mainland China which is becoming one of the world's top countries for travel and tourism (Weiss, 1996).
Already a magnet for tourists from elsewhere in Asia, China is expected to witness explosive growth in international business and tourist arrivals over the next decade. The industry's benefits to China and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region include not just overall wealth but also job creation. According to WTTC/WEFA research, in 1999 travel and tourism will have contributed an estimated $87 billion to China's GDP and accounted for almost 494 million jobs, or 7 percent of total employment. In Hong Kong, travel and tourism supports 224,000 jobs, or 9 percent of total employment (AIT, Email, 2003).
The Institute also uses Taiwanese figures to show projections that travel and tourism sectors could grow 3 percent per year until 2010. By 2010, the sector could account for more than 1 in 13 jobs in Taiwan, and tourism could make up 9 percent of Taiwan's GDP. Taiwan's travel and tourism economy is forecast to grow at a real rate of 7.9 percent per year. Demand for travel and tourism in China is expected to grow at more than twice the predicted global rate ("Taiwan to fine" 2001).
The travel and tourism industry-which includes transport, accommodation, catering, and recreation-is part of a broader travel and tourism economy, which includes businesses that supply the industry. Analyzing the flow-through effects of these second-tier businesses across the wider economy demonstrates the overall impact of travel and tourism.
This important analysis is made possible by a technique called satellite accounting, first developed by the World Tourism Organization. Current public-sector analysis and related policies tend either to overlook or understate the im...