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The hospitality and tourism industry provides the experiences that we look forward to for dining, recreation, major life events, or just to get away for a little while. Most of us interact with hospitality workers every day, whether grabbing a cup of coffee, dining out, or catching the latest blockbuster film. The hospitality and tourism industry includes a wide range of facets, including lodging, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, transportation services, cruises, travel guides, casinos, movie theaters, and tourism.

The industry plays a particularly big role for travelers, as hospitality and tourism workers help plan trips and make travel reservations, operate hotels and amusement parks, and guide tour groups. Quick facts to know:

• This sector employs over 16 million people and is expected to continue growing.
• There are over 50,000 hotels and motels in the United States.
• Travelers in the United States logged more than 2.25 billion trips in 2019.
• Approximately 80 million visitors from overseas traveled to the U.S. in 2019 to shop, sightsee, dine out, visit national parks and monuments, and enjoy amusement parks.

The hospitality and tourism industry has many entry-level opportunities that can build toward higher-level positions. For example, an entry-level worker may start restaurant work as a dishwasher or table busser and eventually move into cooking, waiting tables, or event management. The hospitality and tourism industry is expected to add more than 1.5 million jobs over the next ten years.