NEWS RELEASES
Travel Trends Index Reveals International Visitors Tumbling in 2019
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved and first published through The US Travel Association's website.
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. Travel Association's latest Travel Trends Index (TTI) found that the international inbound travel sector shrank in July, falling by 1.2%, following a six-month downward trend. This decline follows June’s disappointing nine-month low, when the sector fell below zero for the first time since September 2015. The predictive component of the TTI, the Leading Travel Index (LTI), indicates international inbound travel growth will remain negative over the next six months. U.S. Travel projects that America's share of the global long-haul travel market will fall from its current 11.7% to below 10.9% by 2022, due to factors that include the continued strength of the U.S. dollar, prolonged and rising trade tensions, and stiff competition from rivals for tourism business.
The association believes that policy changes that can be enacted by the government, including the reauthorization of the Brand USA destination marketing organization, expanding the Visa Waiver Program, and improving wait times at customs, can help reverse the decline. "With Congress returning to work, Brand USA's long-term reauthorization must be a top priority," U.S. Travel Senior Vice President of Research David Huether said in a news release. "Brand USA's efforts to promote America to visitors abroad have kept the decline in international inbound visitation from being worse.”
Read the complete Travel Trend Forecast on the U.S. Travel Association’s website.