A crowd of sightseers gathers round as a kilted Scotsman and an Englishwoman in an ivory-coloured suit emerge from Rome city hall into Michelangelo's incomparable square on the Capitol Hill, obviously just married "Why did you get married in Rome?" the couple are asked. "Because it is a romantic city, isn't it?" replies the bridegroom happily The onlookers cheer and clap. A crowd of sightseers gathers round as a kilted Scotsman and an Englishwoman in an ivory-coloured suit emerge from Rome city hall into Michelangelo's incomparable square on the Capitol Hill, obviously just married "Why did you get married in Rome?" the couple are asked. "Because it is a romantic city, isn't it?" replies the bridegroom happily. The onlookers cheer and clap. Sandy and Janet Morrison from Aberdeen are just one of a fast increasing number of British couples who are visiting Italy to be married in its sumptuous city halls or splendid Baroque churches, possibly with receptions in Tuscan villas or medieval castles.Staff at the British consulate in Florence say that the number of people from the UK seeking the required documents in central Italy has increased steadily over the past three or four years, with a leap of 75 per cent to 280 last year.

In Rome it rose from around 210 in 1999 to nearly 240 last year - and officials expect the trend to continue.Gabriella Lo Jacono, a wedding co-ordinator in Rome, arranged for around 70 couples to tie the knot in Rome, Florence and Venice last year, and says that the figure promises to be even higher this year. "I already have a thick file for 2002," she said.Couples are drawn by the romance of Italy, but consular officials believe demand has also been stimulated by the increasing number of agencies advertising in newspapers and on the internet offering to take on the paperwork and arrangements. Thanks to the exchange rate a wedding in Italy could cost no more, probably less, than one in Britain, although for couples who invite hundreds of wedding guests to stay at specially rented Tuscan villas, the bill can rise steeply.Ms Lo Jacono's clients tend to be slightly older than the average. "About 65 per cent of them are marrying for the second or third time," she said.

Most visit alone, or with a very few friends or relations, for an intimate wedding, often with a reception back home later. However, Sandra Santoro, who runs a similar agency in Florence, said she has seen plenty of young couples pass through.Sandy Morrison, an oil industry engineer, who is 50, and Janet, a personnel officer, who is 48, were both marrying for the second time. Sandy explained that it was proving extremely difficult to arrange a wedding which would combine his family and friends in Aberdeen and hers in the Great Yarmouth area."Then we said: 'Why are we doing all this? The wedding has to satisfy ourselves. Why not just take ourselves off somewhere?'" Receptions in both Aberdeen and Norfolk will follow.But romantics such as Sandy and Janet encounter some restrictions.

You cannot get married in a Renaissance garden or a gondola, although you can hire a special ornately carved wedding gondola spread with lace. Roman Catholics may marry in Catholic churches, but for everyone else it has to be a city or town hall, with an optional ceremony afterwards in the denominational church of your choice. But then, since city halls are usually historic palazzos complete with frescoes, Old Masters, silk hangings and liveried ushers, they are infinitely more splendid than the average British register office.. Tourism is the triffid of the modern world A roll call of its vital statistics makes scary reading Last year 635 million people travelled to a foreign country.

Between them they spent $439bn (£300bn), making tourism the world's biggest export earner, ahead of cars, chemicals, oil and food. Travel and tourism support 200 million jobs - employment for a huge number of people on the planet - and with increased affluence in places such as China and Central and Eastern Europe, the number of people travelling looks set to double in the next 15 years Tourism is the triffid of the modern world A roll call of its vital statistics makes scary reading Last year 635 million people travelled to a foreign country. Between them they spent $439bn (£300bn), making tourism the world's biggest export earner, ahead of cars, chemicals, oil and food. Travel and tourism support 200 million jobs - employment for a huge number of people on the planet - and with increased affluence in places such as China and Central and Eastern Europe, the number of people travelling looks set to double in the next 15 years. This inexorable march of humanity and the potential for despoliation and overcrowding (to say nothing of airport chaos) may lead us in the West to be ever more discerning about the journeys we take, preferring in future to go "deep not wide" - to get to know few places well rather than many superficially. But what about the people, especially those in poorer countries, who are on the receiving end of tourism? What are the prospects of them ever taking control of the writhing economic monster that has arrived on their beaches and in their countryside? Can tourism be a boon rather than a blight for them?It was with these questions in mind that I set out to make a set of radio programmes, Adventures in the Tourist Trade. The programmes show the experience of local people in four holiday destinations - Kenya, Jordan, Goa and Rome. As with so many issues of "development" there were some politics to understand first.For certain pressure groups tourism is a latter-day manifestation of Western imperialism, an evil business that leeches profit from international resorts, and rewards locals only with the dubious privilege of becoming waiters and chambermaids.