【正确答案】
B
【答案解析】[听力原文]
In the region of 1.8 million people are employed in tourism, and the industry contributes ￡50,000 million annually to the economy—about 6 percent of gross domestic product. Britain is one of the world's six leading tourist destinations and by the year 2010 tourism is expected to be the biggest industry in the world.
Between 2003 and 2007 the number of overseas visits to British grew by 48 percent. In 2007 there were 25.1 million overseas visitors to Britain, who spent ￡16,200 million. An estimated 64 percent of visitors came from Europe and 17 percent from North America. Business travel accounts for about one-fifth of all overseas tourism revenue. Britain's tourist attractions include theatres, museums, art galleries, and historic houses, as well as shopping, sports and business facilities.
Domestic tourism was worth ￡18,400 million in 2007. Of British residents opting to take their main holiday in Britain, around half choose a traditional seaside destination. Short breaks, valued at about ￡3,000 million in 2007, make up an increasingly significant part of the market, with shopping accounting for about a third of all expenditure on day trips. Scotland has several skiing resorts.
The British have traditionally travelled widely. Most British holiday-makers wishing to go overseas buy package holidays from travel agencies, where the cost covers both transport and accommodation. The most popular package holiday destinations are Spain, France and Greece. Long-haul holidays to places like the United States, the Caribbean and Australia are becoming more popular as air fares come down. Winter skiing holidays to resorts in Austria, France, Italy and Switzerland and other countries inside and outside Europe continue to attract large numbers of Britons.
There are around 7,200 travel agencies in Britain, of which 98 percent belong to the Association of British Travel Agents. Although most travel agents are small businesses, there are a few large firms, such as Lunn Ploy and Thomas Cook, which have hundreds of branches. Computerised information and booking systems are used extensively in travel agencies. There are also 629 tour operator members of the Association: about half are both retail agents and tour operators. The Association operates financial protection schemes to safeguard its members' customers and maintains codes of conduct drawn up by the Office of Fair Trading. It also offers a free consumer affairs service to help resolve complaints against members and an independent arbitration scheme for tour operators' customers.