People travel to unusual and exotic destinations either out to sheer boredom, due to the novelty factor, or as a challenge
to be met. Space fulfills all these requirements, but the economics of space travel has yet to be worked out.
The author says that the Space Shuttle cannot be used for this purpose, as it was designed to be a space truck, not a space bus. And it was designed with seventies technology. It is interesting to note that the Space Shuttle has yet to receive an airworthiness certificate (presumably for reliability), because it is not an airplane and does not carry passengers for hire!
The reason why orbital flight is so expensive is that there are other costs involved as well besides the cost of building and maintaining a fleet of
spaceships. These include life support costs, and ground communications costs. If costs are brought down by a factor of ten, the author estimates that the market for space tourism may range anywhere from five thousand persons upto fifty thousand persons.
The space tourism market is much bigger than merely taking
tourists into space, and bringing them back again. The space bus will take scientists to space telescopes and space labs, engineers to space construction sites, and technicians to maintain unmanned satellites. If the volume of space tourists demands it, space hotels will also have to be built. That would mean air and water purification systems, garbage disposal, sleeping accomodation as well as medical facilities.
There was a time when only the very very rich could afford to buy automobiles, and fly in aeroplanes. The technology for space tourism is already in place. If the market is there, and people are willing and able to pay for it, it will be done. Even today, a lot of conceptual design work is underway to define the spaceships of the future. The space age has finally dawned, for our children will definitely be flying into space, and perhaps our grandchildren will even be flying spaceships of their own!