Turn up the travel

“He who does not travel does not know the value of men.” – Moorish proverb

The global hospitality and tourism industry accounts for one in 10 jobs worldwide, and 10% of global GDP. In several countries, such as the island paradise of the Maldives, the sector fuels around half of all economic output.

And it isn’t just about the bottom line. There’s a host of socio-economic travel and tourism benefits, including cognitive and existential learning, cultural exchange and global engagement.

Any way you look at it, life would be far poorer – literally and figuratively – without travel.

However, the industry has also come under the scope for its contribution to climate change – it is responsible for roughly 8% of the world’s carbon emissions – and the role it played in exacerbating the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s also particularly vulnerable to natural disasters and recession.

With this in mind, the United Nations has designated 17 February as annual Global Tourism Resilience Day to raise awareness of sustainable tourism practices and their significance in setting up a more resilient future.

Let’s whet your wanderlust and celebrate Global Tourism Resilience Day with a few mind-blowing facts about travel and tourism.

Get your jab of joy

According to Cornell University researchers, people are happier spending their hard-earned cash on experiences, rather than material goods. So you really can go on a trip to cloud nine. You’ll also enjoy a healthy creativity boost and lower your risk of heart disease while you’re at it.

Vive la France!

Whether it's because of the enduring allure of the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre, the country’s gastronomic excellence, the ravishing Riviera or the simple pleasure of a sly croissant on the Seine, France continues to be the world’s number one tourist destination, with as many as 90 million visitors taking to its shores every year. And if you include the country’s overseas territories, it also ranks number one in terms of time zones. Time to enrobe yourself in the tricolore?

Charge it to your room

We’ve all had that gut-wrenching feeling after checking out when you realise that you’ve left something behind. More often than not, it’s your phone charger – the number one most common item left in hotel rooms. Maybe it’s time for an honour system for borrowing a charger when you check in?

Enough to slice through an iceberg

The ill-fated Titanic’s engines were able to muster around 34 300kW of power,  but that figure pales in comparison to the astounding 82 000kW produced by the Boeing 777’s turbines. Little wonder then that the airliner holds the record for the longest flight of a commercial airliner and is capable of flying more than halfway around the world.

Anyone up for a bit of interplanetary travel?

It has been said that Russia represents a world in itself, following its own destiny and developing its own rules. But did you know that the world’s largest country could comfortably fit Pluto within its borders? Spanning two continents, Russia, it would seem, has space to burn.