Space tourism in the nearly two decades since Dennis Tito journeyed to the International Space Station, eight private citizens have paid the $20 million fee to travel to space. Space Adventures suggests that this number could increase fifteen-fold by 2020. These figures do not include other private space agencies such as Virgin Galactic, which as of 2014 has sold approximately 700 tickets priced at $200,000 or $250,000 dollars each and has accepted more than $80 million in deposits. Space tourism Space tourism is space travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. There are several different types of space tourism, including orbital, suborbital
Space Coast Office of Tourism had a strong focus on tourism through the space industry, and the industry accounted for as much as 15% of the tourism in the region, but with a reduction in shuttle launches this dropped to under 5% by 2005. Accordingly, the office had to move their focus to alternative tourism operations, selling "beaches, cruise ships and nature tourism", and after the Space Shuttle "Columbia" disaster in 2003, the Space Shuttle was dropped from their advertising campaigns. Although the "Discovery's" launch in 2005 did see a return of astronaut imagery, the region's dependency on the space industry was much reduced, and