U.S. Travel Association

International visitors to USA decline in 2017

a map of the united states with flags

Visit USA Coalition was launched this week as a travel industry trade groups partnership to work with the Trump administration to reverse the decline over the past two years in trips by international visitors to the USA.

U.S. Travel Association industry data was used to create some charts to highlight the issue of declining tourism to the USA.

Since 2015, US market share fell for 9 of our top 10 source markets. And was flat for South Korea, the other top 10 source country.

Charts in this post are from Visit U.S. Coalition Jan 16 Press Release:

VISIT U.S. COALITION LAUNCHES AMID DROP IN U.S. SHARE OF GLOBAL TRAVEL

US Travel Association Top 10 visitors

1. Brazil down 25%

2. France down 21%

3. Germany down 15%

4. UK down 14%.

5. Australia down 14%.

6. India down 14%.

7. Italy down 11%.

8. Japan down 8%.

9. China down 2%

10. South Korea flat 0%

My personal interpretation of these changes could be that 2016 saw the US Dollar appreciate in value against most international currencies and could explain some of the visitor decline.

However, 2017 saw most foreign currencies gain 15% to 20% against the USD and should not be as significant a contributing factor in the decline of international visitors to the USA as 2016.

The political situation in the USA may be the more significant contributing factor to declining international tourism.

Decline in U.S. Share of Global Long-Haul Travel

US Travel Assoc Long-haul decline-1

The share of global long-haul travel has dropped for the past two years. Of the top 12 global destinations, USA and Turkey are the only two countries to see a decline in long-haul travel over the past two years.

US Travel Assoc long-haul decline

1. Australia up 22%

2. Canada up 21.2%

3. Saudi Arabia up 20.3%

4. United Kingdom up 17.5%

5. United Arab Emirates up 16.5%

6. Thailand up 13.9%

7. China up 9.3%

8. Germany up 8%

9. France up 4%

10. Italy up 2.2%

11. USA down -6%

12. Turkey down -6.7%

 

9 Comments

  • Duf January 17, 2018

    Clear we live in a trump created shithole

  • WR January 17, 2018

    Speak for yourself and your own shithole, Duf. If it’s all about Trump, then please explain the 2016 decline.

  • EyesWideOpen January 17, 2018

    Great post! I wasn’t aware it started to drop 2 years now. I recently read that international college student enrollment has dropped since 2017 and could be attributed, in part, to the current administration being so stupid about foreigners…..especially those who aren’t white.

  • Garrett January 17, 2018

    WR are you fucking stupid?

  • Ric Garrido January 17, 2018

    There is even a name for 2017 travel trend “Trump Slump”
    http://www.foxnews.com/travel/2017/09/08/u-s-tourism-declining-as-new-report-confirms-predicted-trump-slump.html

    But maybe this Fox News story is a winner/loser in Trump’s fake news awards forthcoming today?

  • Larry January 18, 2018

    Hmm, big surprise. We elect an anti-immigrant, protectionist, racist madman as our president. He goes around fear-mongering and spewing hatred against anyone who doesn’t fit his ideal of a MAGA (wink-wink= MAWA) society, he bullies, threatens and generally pisses off all our allies, he brings us to the brink of war with our foes, he tries repeatedly to put restrictions on travel from countries he deems undesirable and… whoops. Now the rest of the world doesn’t want to come to visit us and the Great Shithole that is the sad state we live in. Nope, that has nothing to do with our president or his policies.

  • tassojunior January 18, 2018

    I have trouble getting my European friends to come visit and certainly the few that come now don’t want to return. They’re incredibly disappointed once they see all the poverty and homeless people everywhere and experience how 3rd world our transportation systems are. So many people in the US are obese or grossly obese and unhealthy generally. We haven’t kept up with Europe.

  • Ric Garrido January 18, 2018

    Europeans I meet are astounded when I tell them that it is quite difficult to get around California without your own car. One of my biggest travel expenses is getting from Monterey to San Jose or San Francisco Airport. Requires either renting a car or paying $70 to $100 week in parking if I drive my car to the airport.

    Shuttle service is $50 one way.

    Public transportation from Monterey takes 4+ hours to go 75 miles to SJC or 110 miles to SFO.

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