It's the fourth-largest employer in the UK and the economy's sixth-largest export earner.
Around one in 10 Britons work in tourism and, during the last Parliament, it accounted for one in every three jobs created.
So why do politicians insist on regarding tourism as a Cinderella industry?
George Osborne, when Chancellor, loved to be filmed on a building site wearing a hard hat and high-vis jacket.
He was less frequently shown in a hotel, pub or restaurant, at the seaside, at a cinema, a dog track, a racecourse or at one of Britain's great visitor attractions.
His attitude, sadly, typifies how politicians, of all parties, have seen tourism as somehow inferior to sectors such as manufacturing, construction, financial services and even retail.
The budget for Visit Britain, the Government agency that promotes inward-bound tourism, was cut continually during the last parliament and now scrapes along on much less than equivalent bodies in the United States, France and Spain.
Australia, a country with a population less than half that of Britain, spends more than twice as much promoting itself as a tourist destination.
Part of the problem is that tourism is overseen not by the Department of Business, as it once was, but by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, generally regarded across Whitehall as the most lightweight of government departments.
There is not even a minister for tourism: the sector comes under the remit of the Parliamentary Under Secretary for Sport, Tourism and Heritage, currently Tracey Crouch, whose personal interests - at least according to her ministerial biography - are more sporting than in tourism.
This is a pretty shoddy way to treat a sector that employs 2.4 million people and a further 1.2 million in support businesses, a sector that annually brings into the UK £17.7bn of export earnings.
Even the debate over increasing runway capacity has largely been about creating more opportunities for British business people to travel to China and other locations, rather than about making it easier for foreign tourists to visit the UK.
Britain is not helped by being one of the most expensive places to visit worldwide.
The British Hospitality Association, the main industry body, notes that the UK is the 138th out of 140 countries for price competitiveness.
This is largely due to the fact that VAT is levied at 20% on UK tourism - getting on for twice the EU average.
Hotel accommodation in France and Germany, for instance, attracts VAT of 7%. Ireland charges just 9% VAT on tourism.
A feisty campaign to cut tourism VAT to 5% is being waged but is likely to meet short shrift from ministers in spite of research by Deloitte that, within a decade, it would actually contribute an extra £2.6bn to the Treasury.
Sadly, ministers are likely to view the recent drop in sterling as having raised competitiveness, excusing them from further action.
However, as protectionism mounts globally and it becomes harder to sell our goods overseas, tourism is going to be more important than ever in helping Britain pay its way in the world.
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