Short answers, pulled from the story.
UN Tourism defines tourism as people travelling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year, for leisure, business, and other purposes, and for not less than 24 hours. This definition reaches beyond the common perception of tourism as holiday activity only. Tourism is also the commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel.
The English word tourist was used in 1772 and tourism in 1811. Both derive from the word tour, which comes from Old English turian, from Old French torner, from Latin tornare, meaning to turn on a lathe, itself from the Ancient Greek tornos, meaning lathe.
Thomas Cook pioneered the travel agency business. On the 5th of July 1841, he arranged for a railway to carry 540 temperance campaigners from Leicester to Loughborough at one shilling per person, the first privately chartered excursion train advertised to the public. He later built grand circular tours of Europe and established inclusive independent travel, and by the 1890s over 20,000 tourists a year used Thomas Cook & Son.
The Grand Tour was a traditional trip around Europe, especially Germany and Italy, undertaken mainly by upper-class young men of means from Western and Northern Europe. It flourished from about 1660 until large-scale rail transit arrived in the 1840s and served as an educational opportunity and rite of passage.
The World Tourism Organization reported a 70% decrease in international travel in 2020, and by April 2020, 165 of 217 worldwide destinations had completely stopped international tourism. The United States is estimated to have lost 147 billion US dollars in tourism revenue between January and October 2020, with Spain losing around 46.7 billion.
The Negro Motorist Green Book was a travel guide published from 1936 to 1967 by Victor and Alma Duke Green. Aimed at Black travellers during the era of segregation, it listed places where they were welcome, and the Esso Standard Oil Company advertised in it and sold it at gas stations nationwide.
In April 2001, Dennis Tito became the first tourist to visit space, travelling aboard a Russian Soyuz. In May 2011, Virgin Galactic launched its SpaceShipTwo plane at an advertised price of $200,000 per seat.