Before the Industrial Revolution tourism was open only to the aristocracy and the wealthy merchant class. They had a difficult time due to the absence of comfortable tourist establishments. After the Industrial Revolution, transportation progressed quickly. Both the transport of material goods and human travel were improved. Amenities for tourism, (hotels, and information sources) were gradually established. A new type of rich merchant class was rising, guide books such as the ones by Thomas Cook were published, and eventually travel and sightseeing were no longer only for the rich. Many different classes of people could travel all over the world.

At the end of the 19th century, dime novels were written in the United States, allowing people, especially the young, to fantasize cheaply and easily. The fast growth of technology and the newly asserted laws of science and nature created the cultural environment for Jules Verne's and H.G Wells' novels. Those books encouraged the development of rocket societies. For example, in Great Britain the British Interplanetary Society BIS was established, similarly the American Rocket Society ARS in the USA, the German Society for Space Travel in Germany, and a society in the Soviet Union were established. Unfortunately the outbreak of World War II made rocket technology turn to military purposes (i.e. Germany's V-2).

After the war, German engineers went to the USA and the USSR, where they continued the development of long range ballistic missiles as nuclear warhead delivery systems. Then the cold war started. The Soviets recognized the inferiority of bombers compared to missiles more quickly than the United States and tried to develop long range ballistic missiles to reach the United States. In 1957, when Sputnik 1 was launched and reached orbit, it started a new Space Age and the Space Race. President Kennedy in a speech promised to reach the Moon by the end of the 1960s, and the government funding to NASA and military space programs was increased. This had good consequences such as fast progress in space technology, and the Moon was reached in 1969.

After the successful completion of the Apollo project, the U.S. space program was significantly downsized. Despite a brief period of increased funding during the period of 'Star Wars', the end of the Cold War also meant the end of many of the defense and military contracts that had helped to finance space research. The space industry had to begin restructuring itself by shifting its emphasis to commercial markets.

Almost at the same time, the globalization of finance and the amazing growth and progress of the Net (Internet) created a demand for Low Earth Orbit ( LEO) Satellites. Many independent companies rushed to satisfy this demand. Therefore new independent companies face a financing problem from financial markets now as commercial companies want to shift their risks to insurance and balance their risks in this kind of business.

But for new space companies, it is difficult to cope with the risks. Without cash-flow, no company can keep in business. It is necessary for the successful development of commercial space activities to build up activities which generate large-scale cash-flow as soon as possible. This requires tapping large-scale consumer markets using mass advertising and other techniques of successful commercial companies.

In Economics, cash-flow creates employment and growth for a company. To express this theory in other words, the growth of market and company depend on the amount of cash-flow from outside sources. With this in mind, space markets should make themselves attractive to the financial market. The question is how to do this. I think that we have to introduce humanity's desire for travel and adventure. The importance of space tourism has very wide popular appeal.

Tourism is already so large in today's world that even Mt. Everest and Antarctica are tourist destinations. Sightseeing is clearly a strong motivation for people who want to visit and enjoy unusual places, even if they are expensive and somewhat dangerous to visit. (Please see advertisements in National Geographic Magazine!)

It is not only in sightseeing that people use money for personal enjoyment. The growth of income is developing a strong market for leisure and entertainment. Amusement industries have become an important part of the world economy. Thus, tourism offers the possibility of very large-scale space transport activities. This will reduce the cost of getting into orbit.

If the cost of getting into orbit comes down to 300USD/Kg, it will reduce the cost of LEO to less than 1/100th of its present cost. It could cause dramatic change in space activities.

This will help realize the development of space factories, space mining, manned flights to other planets, the supply of energy to the Earth using Solar Power Stations ( SPS) and others. Even now most of the problems are not technical problems but financial ones, including government budgeting, insurance, and legal matters. But the realization of these projects depends on reducing the cost of launching vehicles into orbit.

I have been describing space related transport systems, but let's look at the matter from a different angle. At present,the maxmimum speed of transportation is Mach 2. Air-breathing engines such as SST and HST cause many enviromental problems to travel, (the emission of NOx, shock waves, destruction of the Ozone layer etc.)

For example, now, from Tokyo to London takes 12 hours by plane. If we can use the SST at Mach 3.0, it will take only 4 hours. Even now the Space Shuttle goes around the earth within 2 hours. Suborbital flight could reach any place in the world within 2 hours.(Flight hours will depend on the route and the limit of acceleration.) The need for high speed transportation exists for purposes of medical donations, vaccine against spreading diseases, diplomacy, business, and so on.

The effects of space tourism will change the logistics of world trade.

It is my conclusion that the realization of space tourism will provide the strongest economic incentive for developing the space industry and society in the 21st century.

It will be the beginning of opening space activities for all mankind.