Tourism to the U.S. Is Lagging

Condé Nast Traveler 2/5/2019 Katherine LaGrave

a large bridge over a body of water with Golden Gate Bridge in the background

International travel to the U.S. saw slower growth last year, compared to the number of visitors to other major regions around the world, according to a new report from Tourism Economics, which delivers global tourism data and travel forecasts.

Though the U.S. saw 2 percent growth in 2018, this increase pales in comparison to that seen in other regions. Arrivals to Europe grew 6 percent, arrivals to Asia grew 6 percent, and arrivals to the Middle East grew 10 percent, according to the report. If there was a takeaway from the findings, it's this: The U.S. is losing its grip on the market share of the world's travelers.

In part, this is largely because travelers from key markets, like Asia, aren't visiting the U.S. as much as they have before. In 2018, travel from the Asia Pacific region to the U.S. declined .9 percent as a whole, with South Korean travel to the U.S. falling three percent (after averaging 11 percent growth over the previous decade), Japanese travel dipping 4 percent, and Chinese travel neither growing nor decreasing—just sitting at zero percent after averaging 23 percent growth over the previous decade. (The report simply states: "Chinese travel to the U.S. stopped in its tracks last year.") The biggest decline in travelers to the U.S. in 2018, though, came from Germany, which dropped seven percent in international visits.

Taken together, the report points out that many of the steepest declines are "perhaps in connection to trade tensions" (China) and "perhaps evidence of a reaction to unpopular U.S. diplomacy and policies" (Germany). Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, told Forbes that in addition to damaging U.S. rhetoric leading to a cooling of arrivals, there's actually a "triad of factors at play," citing a slowing global economy and weakened currencies against the dollar as well.

If this story sounds familiar, it may be because you've heard it before: A 2018 report from the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the United Nations agency that monitors and supplies global tourism data, found that the U.S. was again outperformed in international arrival increases by Europe (8 percent increase), Asia and the Pacific (6 percent), and the Middle East (5 percent) in 2017. North America as a whole saw a growth of 2 percent, but the UNWTO points out that this was due to strong showings in Mexico and Canada—and not the U.S.

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