Tourism to US continues to drop

 According to the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), Industry & Analysis, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce

Total non-U.S. resident international visitor volume to the United States of 5,645,630 decreased 5.5 percent compared to April 2025.

April 2026 Total International Travel Volume to and from the United States:

In April 2026, international visitor arrivals to the United States totaled 5,645,630, while outbound travel departures from the United States by U.S. citizens totaled 8,518,078.

Hmmmm, more want to leave than come here?

Let's hope World Cup will prove to be a bonus.  The data should be out in a couple months.

International Inbound Air Arrivals to the US in the 3rd of 2025

 As expected, tourism to the States continues to decline.  Are we that unlikable? 

From the report (bold mine):

The number of international visitors arriving into the United States decreased 5.7 percent from the third quarter of 2024: arrivals from Mexico increased 1.9 percent, arrivals from overseas decreased 4.4 percent, and arrivals from Canada decreased 15.5 percent. 

Source: National Travel and Tourism Office Publishes 2025 Q3 Results of the Survey of International Air Travelers.  see Visual Data Center.

Overseas Visitation to the United States Down 4.2 % Year Over Year in January 2026

 Overseas Visitation to the United States Down 4.2 % Year Over Year in January 2026

No surprise here.

Non-U.S. citizen air passenger arrivals to the United States from foreign countries totaled:

4.6 million in January 2026, down 4.8 percent compared to January 2025.

This represents 87.4 percent of pre-pandemic January 2019 volume.

Hmmm, who was in office pre-pandemic?

Read the facts here.

Another Month of Decline of International Visitors to US

 Another Month of Decline of International Visitors to US.

According to International Travel Receipts and Payments Program, we see another month decline in visitors coming to the US.

See the facts here.

For previous years, for example, see the role of Amusement Parks to International Tourism.  Think Orlando in Florida.

Incoming tourism to the States continues to drop

 

As expected:

October 2025 Total International Travel Volume to and from the United States

In October 2025, international visitor arrivals to the United States totaled 5,846,506, a decrease of 5.7 percent compared to October 2024 Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in October 2025: International Arrivals to the United States Total non-U.S. resident international visitor volume to the United States of 5,846,506 decreased 5.7% compared to October 2024 and represents 87.4% of the pre-COVID total visitor volume reported for October 2019. Overseas visitor volume to the United States of 3,055,342 decreased 3.1% from October 2024. The largest number of international visitor arrivals was from Mexico (1,569,052), Canada (1,222,112), the United Kingdom (426,538), Germany (192,236), and South Korea (172,459). Combined, these top 5 source markets accounted for 61.3% of total international arrivals. The top 5 overseas tourism arrivals for October were the United Kingdom (371,093), Germany (163,294), South Korea (155,147), France (147,404), and Brazil (145,331). The top 5 overseas business arrivals for October were the United Kingdom (54,093), India (42,741), Japan (31,339), Germany (28,237), and China (19,398). The top 5 overseas student arrivals for October were China (7,466), India (5,577), South Korea (2,052), Brazil (1,355), and the United Kingdom (1,352).

Overseas Visitation to the United States Down 3.5 percent Year Over Year in November 2025

 Why come to America?  We are not welcoming, that is for sure.

Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in November 2025:

U.S.-international air traffic passenger enplanements1 totaled:

19.9 million in November 2025, down 0.2 percent compared to November 2024, with enplanements reaching 107.1 percent of pre-pandemic November 2019 volume. 

Originating Non-Stop Air Travel in November 2025

Non-U.S. citizen air passenger arrivals to the United States from foreign countries totaled:

4.2 million in November 2025, down 5.2 percent compared to November 2024.

This represents 87.4 percent of pre-pandemic November 2019 volume.

Overseas Visitation to the United States Down 3.1 percent Year Over Year in October 2025

 

Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in October 2025:

U.S.-international air traffic passenger enplanements1 totaled:

21.4 million in October 2025, up 0.3 percent compared to October 2024, with enplanements reaching 106.8 percent of pre-pandemic October 2019 volume. 

Originating Non-Stop Air Travel in October 2025

Non-U.S. citizen air passenger arrivals to the United States from foreign countries totaled:

4.8 million in October 2025, down 4.4 percent compared to October 2024.

This represents 88.3 percent of pre-pandemic October 2019 volume.

Folks don't come to the US for food.

National Travel and Tourism Office 

Releases Landmark Study on the 

International Competitiveness of the U.S. Travel and Tourism Industry

"From the perspective of overseas visitors analyzed in Section 1 of the study, the United States had a competitive advantage in five of the 10 categories analyzed (Tourist Information Centers, Shopping, Culture & Leisure, Beach & Water, and Local Hospitality & Safety Feeling), was competitive in four (Transportation, Environment, Historical Heritage, and Accommodation Experience) and had a competitive disadvantage in one (Food Experience)." 

Source: Travel and Tourism Reports

Decline of international tourism to US

 International Arrivals to the United States

Total non-U.S. resident international visitor volume to the United States of 6,275,257 decreased 8.9 percent compared to July 2024, representing 81.5 percent of the pre-COVID total visitor volume reported for July 2019.

Overseas visitor volume to the United States of 3,318,992 decreased 3.1 percent from July 2024.

Source: I-94 Arrivals Program

National Parks top interest of International Visitors

 

The National Travel and Tourism Office has released 12 market profile reports of overseas visitors for calendar year 2024 and prior years.  These profiles, based on the Survey of International Air Travelers (SIAT), detail the characteristics of overseas visitors engaged in the following activities: Air (Intra-USA), Visit American Indian Communities, Amusement-Theme Park, Business, Car Rental, Cultural Heritage, Fine Dining, Hotel-Motel, National Parks/Monuments, Package, Shopping, and Vacation.

2024 selected highlights include:

Top overseas source markets that visited U.S. National Parks/Monuments were the United Kingdom (1.8 million), Germany (1 million), France (901,000), Brazil (876,000), and Australia, (726,000).

Top U.S. cities visited by overseas Business Travelers were New York City (973,000), Los Angeles (664,000), Miami (444,000), San Francisco (312,000), and Chicago (271,000).

Of the 3.3 million overseas visitors who came to the United States on a package tour, 19.8 percent were from Japan, followed by the United Kingdom (16.7 percent), China (8.2 percent), India (6.5 percent), and South Korea (5.9 percent). 

Overseas visitation to Amusement-Theme Parks increased 16 percent from 2023 to 9.5 million, accounting for 27 percent of total overseas visitation to the United States in 2024.

Overseas visitors who experienced Fine Dining in the United States had an average household income of $104,361. 

27.5 percent (2.7 million) of overseas visitors who Rented Cars in the United States also took air-travel between U.S. cities during their trip.

In March 2025, international visitor arrivals to the US decreased 8.1 percent from March 2024

 Tourism continues to drop as the US becomes the "do not come" destination for foreign tourists.

and the facts from 

I-94 Arrivals Program

International Arrivals to the United States

Total non-U.S. resident international visitor volume to the United States of 5,410,331, decreased 8.1 percent compared to March 2024 and represented 86.4 percent of the pre-COVID total visitor volume reported for March 2019.

Overseas visitor volume to the United States of 2,391,265 decreased 11.6 percent from March 2024.

The largest number of international visitor arrivals was from Canada (1,704,688), Mexico (1,314,378), the United Kingdom (283,561), Japan (164,846), and India (152,105). Combined, these top 5 source markets accounted for 66.9 percent of total international arrivals.

The top 5 overseas tourism arrivals for March were the United Kingdom (219,797), Japan (133,279), Brazil (123,915), Germany (105,473), and India (94,744).

The top 5 overseas business arrivals for March were the United Kingdom (60,951), India (42,546), Germany (31,509), Japan (28,876), and China (23,327).

The top 5 overseas student arrivals for March were China (22,651), India (14,815), South Korea (5,068), Brazil (3,660), and Taiwan (2,858).

Any surprise? 

Nothing unexpected, but travel to US down in March

 Nothing unexpected, but travel to US down in March

Originating Non-Stop Air Travel in March 2025

Non-U.S. citizen air passenger arrivals to the United States from foreign countries totaled:

4.541 million in March 2025, down 9.7 percent compared to March 2024.

Asian citizen arrivals to the U.S. were down 33.3 percent compared to March 2019.

Source: U.S. International Air Travel Statistics (I-92 data) 

International Visitors Spent $21.2 Billion in June 2024

A quote from news feed: 

Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in June 2024:

• International visitors spent $21.2 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States during the month of June, an increase of more than 14 percent compared to June 2023.
• Conversely, Americans spent more than $20.8 billion traveling abroad during June, yielding a slight balance of trade surplus of $360 million for travel and tourism-related goods and services.

• International visitors have spent nearly $126.2 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services year to date (January through June 2024), an increase of 17 percent when compared 2023; international visitors have injected, on average, nearly $697 million a day into the U.S. economy year to date.
• U.S. travel and tourism exports accounted for 23.1 percent of U.S. services exports during June 2024 and 8.0 percent of all U.S. exports, goods and services alike.

---

Composition of Monthly Spending (Travel Exports)

• Travel Spending 
• Purchases of travel and tourism-related goods and services by international visitors traveling in the United States totaled $11.7 billion during June 2024 (compared to $10.0 billion in June 2023), an increase of 16 percent when compared to the previous year. These goods and services include food, lodging, recreation, gifts, entertainment, local transportation in the United States, and other items incidental to foreign travel.
• Travel receipts accounted for 55 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in June 2024.
• Passenger Fare Receipts
• Fares received by U.S. carriers from international visitors totaled $3.5 billion in June 2024 (compared to $3.0 billion in the previous year), up 17 percent when compared to June 2023. These receipts represent expenditures by foreign residents on international flights provided by U.S. air carriers.
• Passenger fare receipts accounted for 17 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports during June.
• Medical/Education/Short-Term Worker Spending
• Expenditures for educational and health-related tourism, along with all expenditures by border, seasonal, and other short-term workers in the United States totaled $6.0 billion in June 2024 (compared to $5.5 billion in June 2023), an increase of 9 percent when compared to the previous year.
• Medical tourism, education, and short-term worker expenditures accounted for 28 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in June 2024.

Greenland from Above

 Certainly on my bucket list to actually stand on the ground on Greenland, but for the meantime, here is a shot from above.

And a couple still shots

International Visitors Spent $19.5 Billion in the United States in December 2023

 Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in December 2023:

International visitors spent $19.5 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States, an increase of more than 22% compared to December 2022 and the highest level of monthly spending since December 2019 (before the onset of reported COVID-19 cases). In fact, monthly U.S. travel and tourism exports are within $1.4 billion of their highwater mark set back in March 2018 when international visitors spent an appreciable $20.8 billion experiencing the United States.

Conversely, Americans spent $18.9 billion traveling abroad during December, yielding a balance of trade surplus of $544 million and the sixth consecutive month during which the United States enjoyed a balance of trade surplus for travel and tourism-related goods and services.

International visitors have spent more than $212.2 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services year to date (January through December 2023), an increase of more than 28% when compared 2022; international visitors have injected, on average, more than $581 million a day into the U.S. economy during 2023.

U.S. Travel and tourism exports accounted for 22.4% of U.S. services exports during December 2023 and 7.5% of all U.S. exports, goods and services alike.

International Visitors Spent $16.5 Billion in December 2022

From one of my news feeds:

"Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in December2022:

International visitors spent nearly $16.5 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States, an increase of nearly 49 percent compared to December 2021 and the single highest month for U.S. tourism-related exports since February 2020—the onset of the global pandemic.

Americans spent more than $15.5 billion traveling abroad, yielding a balance of trade surplus of $932 million for the month.

A summation of the twelve months in 2022 (preliminary data, subject to future revisions) suggests that international visitors spent nearly $162.6 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services, nearly doubling (up 96%) the amount spent in 2021. International visitors injected, on average, more than $445 million a day into the U.S. economy in 2022."

(Terrance B. Lettsome International Airport, EIS, Tortola)

See the fact sheet from NTTO here.

Winter Travel 2022 headaches

 You get what you pay for.

Holiday travel has been a headache this year.

Record numbers have pent up demand to visit grandma and have jammed the highways and flyways.

Road travel is always bad with the combination of cheap gas, more traffic and crappy weather.  So much that I long gave up on holiday travel by road in the winter especially after headaches in snow and ice storms and the desire to travel 300-400 miles by road.  Even the Interstates were bad.

Air travel is another story and this past weekend airlines cancelled thousands of flights due to the heavy snow that blanketed everything from the Midwest to the East.  Once you get a Chicago size airport closing, it jams up flights for everyone.  Large carriers, for the most part have recovered, but not Southwest.

Why Southwest?  Well most airlines employ a hub strategy, that links smaller airports via a connection at a larger one.  That meant for me, when I lived in New England you had to make a connection on flight.  I expected that for international trips to the Caribbean and would plan to travel through Miami southbound and Charlotte, if possible northbound.

But Southwest flew direct and many were between smaller airports.  I only flew once on SWA about 16 years ago and it was between Hartford, CT and Baltimore, MD.  I didn't care for the cattle herding boarding, but I was travelling alone.

Well this system of moving passengers and crew failed.  SWA is still backed up and doesn't expect to recover until next week.

 You get what you pay for.

The flights out of New England were always at 600 ish in the morning, and since it would be the first flight out, we rarely had a problem in a snow storm.  Returning would be close to midnight, but we were always happy to see the pups.

So the flight south would continue and most of the time without incident, except when thunderstorms would disrupt connections but that is a summer problem.

Returning meant passing through customs, and that is another story.  In the meantime I recommend Precheck. 

 You get what you pay for.

Summer (hectic) travel

 Read an AP story this morning in the paper (yes a hardcopy paper) titled "European travel runs into pandemic cutbacks."  Heavy traffic and Covid 19 precautions.

I haven't flown since September 2021 but reading this has made me even more reluctant.

Essentially all of my flight travel depends on connecting flights.  I also know that weather, both summer and winter can create a tremendous strain on flights.

My strategy, especially in the winter is to fly early in the morning.  Basically you insure the plane is at the airport from the previous night and all that is needed is the deicing.  Still may have delays at a connecting airport, but that is where the airport lounge comes in handy.

Summer time opens us other weather related delays.  I recall hopping a ride from College Station TX to Waco in a thunderstorm to hopefully connect a flight to Dallas-Fort Worth.

Did I tell you about missing my flight in San Juan since I was getting a chair message?

So long story short.  If you connect, give yourself plenty of time so you don't need to do a OJ Simpson run through the airport (can't do that anyway due to TSA).

Air Passenger Travel Between the U.S. and Europe up 783%

 Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in May 2022:

U.S.-International air traffic passenger enplanements (APIS/ “I-92” arrivals + departures) totaled 16.764 million in May 2022, up 129% compared to May 2021, however, enplanements reached 76% of pre-pandemic May 2019 volume.

Whew.

Oh yeah, after my AT hike I started a job at Camp Straus as a canoe guide.

Busy Airports

"Top Countries of Total International Air Traffic Passenger Enplanements to and from the United States were Mexico 3.37 million, Canada 1.49 million, the United Kingdom 865k, Dominican Republic 790k and Germany 464k (Note: Air travel to/from Europe totaled 3.0 million passengers, up 862% over March 2021).

Top U.S. Ports serving international locations were New York (JFK) 1.84 million, Miami (MIA) 1.74 million, Los Angeles (LAX) 1.08 million, Newark (EWR) 840k and Chicago (ORD) 547k.

Top Foreign Ports serving U.S. locations were Cancun (CUN) 1.27 million, London Heathrow (LHR) 789k, Toronto (YYZ) 673k, Mexico City (MEX) 596k and Paris (CDG) 420k."

For this and more, visit https://www.trade.gov/data-visualization/apisi-92-monitor