Tourism is the world's largest civil industry. Tourist activities generate substantial income and employment opportunities for tourist destinations. For many small island nations, tourism has become the most important source of business opportunities, jobs and foreign exchange as the economic significance of primary exports wanes.
Tourism is mainly a private sector enterprise, but the timely provision of hotel and other visitor services, such as entertainment, food and sport facilities, requires public sector participation int he form of infrastructure, promotional support and fiscal and financial incentives, so as to attract private investment to the sector.
The thirst to see new places, to visit the inaccessible, to stand on the peaks, to drink the native brew and sleep in the native homes, to see what few others have seen, is one of the driving factors behind the growth of tourism.
The main European Union (EU) measures contributing to the development of tourism in Europe include "Eures" (EURopean Employment Services), the labour market network, which includes a specific section on tourism, aiming at facilitating the mobility of workers in the European Economic Area, and the "InTouriSME" project which allows European tourism enterprises and tourist destinations to promote through Internet on a world wide scale their products and services.