Discretionary income, or disposable income, is money not needed for personal essentials such as food, clothing, health-care, transportation, and so forth. Smaller family size and an increase of women in the labor market have made today¡¯s family more affluent, which greatly promotes the tourist industry.
     The improvement in transportation has facilitated travel on a large scale. The explosion of railway and automobile travel was followed by dynamic improvements in air service. Today, in many countries, elaborate road systems have been built so that a person can go from border to border or even across national borders in the case of Europe without being affected by a single red light or two-way traffic on the same road way. The vast network of roads and air connections and mass production of the car at a price many people can afford have led to the development of a tourist industry unmatched in history. With increasing affluence and leisure, and a relative decrease in cost travel, the growth of the travel industry will surely continue.