Direct spending on business travel by home and worldwide travelers, including expenditures on meetings, events and incentive programs (ME&I), totaled $334.2 billion in 2019. In 1867, the paddle steamer Quaker City launched into the primary American-origin cruise tour. Mark Twain, who later wrote of his trip in The Innocent’s Abroad , was one of several wealthy passengers on this round-trip journey from America to the Holy Land, Egypt, the Crimea, and Greece. At the time, merchant ships like Quaker City have been occasionally outfitted for leisure voyages along with their regular business activities. From this modest beginning, cruising—or taking a …