According to the United Nations, a tourist is someone who travels at least 50 miles or 80 kilometers for recreation. In the United States, people love to take trips. They spend more on vacation than anyone else in the world. Many of them take package tours; however, the first vacation package was attributed to an Englishman, names Thomas Cook. In 1841, he took 500 travelers to a nearby town. The price of the tour included a train ticket and a meal along the way. In 1845, Thomas Cook sold the first vacation package tour to Europe. And 1866, his company was organizing trips to the U.S. Today, tourism is a big business. And the tourist industry is crucial to many countries'economy. It is estimated that 80% of jobs in the world, that’s more than 200 million people depend on tourism. Some local governments, like the British Virgin Islands in the Caribbean, are almost totally depended on visitors. About 95% of the islands income comes from tourism. For other places in the world, tourism is ever growing. It is estimated that by the year 2015, people worldwide will spend some five thousand billion U.S. dollars for vacation abroad. Regions in Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East, and Africa will see the greatest growth.
Q15 What is a package tour?
Q16 According to the talk, who first introduced the package tour?
Q17 Which of the following is true about the British Virgin Islands?
Q18 How much will be spent by people worldwide on vacation in abroad by the year 2015?
本文是说明文，介绍了跟“旅游”相关的诸多内容。涉及到旅游的定义，旅游的发展历史；旅游产业现在的情况以及对2015年旅游业发展的推测。文章本身没有特别生僻的词，但其中涉及到的人名（Thomas Cook）、年份、金额、比例等等是笔记的难点也是考点。