Travelers' choice of countries create effects for investments and goods for various companies around the world. In many cases, the businesses focus on goods in the range of tourism and travelers, especially during summer months.

The direct impact that tourism creates is measured in a so-called tourism satellite account. Here, they collect the proportion of consumption in different industries related to tourism.

The tourism satellite account is produced on behalf of the Swedish Agency for Economic and Regional by Statistics Sweden. It shows consumption by the industry, households in Sweden, the Swedish business community and the number of foreign visitors. It also includes the tourism's share of the total GDP.

In 2009, tourism increased the turnover by 1.6 percent in Sweden alone. In addition, there have been 36, 000 new full-time jobs due to tourism since the year of 2000.

A recent survey by Företagarna shows how tourism affects the economy.Nearly 75 percent of Sweden's small sized businesses believe that tourism is an important part in the area they work. 27 percent of the companies also believe that tourism has become more important over the years.

Tourism needs more attention in the media since it will play a major role for businesses around the world and not just in Sweden in the near future.

                                                                                   Cecilia Helland