Tourism is one of the leading and most dynamic sectors of the world economy. Due to the speed of its development it has been acknowledged as an economic phenomenon of the century.
Every year business, cultural and scientific connections between regions and countries are becoming more and more intensive. The development of the national economy and its integration into the world market are impossible without business tourism.
Generally speaking, tourist industry is an industry of providing tourist services to customers. It's a complex system of companies, organizations and institutions of both the productive and non-manufacturing sphere of economy that provide production, distribution, exchange and consumption of the tourist product, development and usage of tourist resources and creation of the material and technical basis for tourist services. Due to the complexity of this system numerous elements of it may be distinguished: tour operators and travel agencies (tourist enterprises dealing with development, introduction and implementation of the tourist product); companies providing accommodation for customers (hotels, motels, boarding houses, vacation houses etc.); public catering companies (restaurants, cafes, bars etc.); transport companies (airlines, railroad, automobile companies, river and sea transport etc.); excursion bureaus; manufacturing enterprises producing souvenirs, equipment etc.; commercial establishments (stores selling souvenirs and equipment); recreational enterprises (movie theaters, clubs, etc.); establishments of independent tourism (alpinist, bicycle clubs); scientific, educational and designing institutions. This list is far from being complete. With the constant process of development of the tourist industry more and more new companies and organizations (for example, banks insurance companies and so on) may be involved in the tourist industry.