[单选题]Each year over 600 million people travel internationally. Hundreds of millions more journey within their home country, doing so for both work and pleasure. As a result, the tourist industry—including hotels, scenic spots, airlines, travel agencies, and other businesses—is described as “the world’s number one employer.”
Worldwide, tourism generates an estimated four trillion dollars annually. Individual tourists may not view themselves as part of a worldwide peace movement, but this is how the UN World Tourism Organization describes the industry. In 2004, Francesco Frangialli, Secretary-general of the organization, told a presidential conference in the Middle East, “Tourism and peace are inseparable. The forces released by tourism are so powerful that they can change apparently irreversible situations and bring about peace where none was considered possible.”
What are the origins of this influential industry? Is tourism truly a force for good? And can “the forces released by tourism” really bring peace?
The seeds of the modern tourist industry in the West were sown especially in the 19th century. As the industrial revolution swelled the ranks of the middle classes in Europe and the United States,a growing number of people found themselves with both the money and the time to travel.
In addition, great advances were made in methods of mass transportation. Powerful engines pulled passengers between major cities, and great steamships sped them between continents. To deal with the growing traffic, large hotels sprang up near railway terminals and shipping ports.
In 1841, English businessman Thomas Cook saw the potential in tying these elements together He was the first to combine transportation, accommodation, and activities at desired locations into a holiday package tour. “Due to the system founded by Mr. Cook,” noted the British statesman Will Jam Gladstone in the 1860’s, “whole classes have for the first time found easy access to foreign countries and have acquired some of the familiarity with them which breeds not contempt(蔑视)but kindness.”
According to the passage, tourists().
A.take themselves as peace-makers
B.may change a country’s political situation
C.are inseparable from politics
D.may contribute to world peace