Traveling, Domestic vs. Foreign
HOW MUCH DO WE SPEND?
The travel deficit. The United States enjoyed more than 56 million visitors in 2007 from other countries, compared to 64 million U.S. residents traveling abroad. The top five international visitors to visit Missouri were Canada, United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and Mexico.
According to the Missouri Division of Tourism (University of Missouri Economic Impact Report,) American visitors to Missouri spent an average of $330.41 per visit. As a comparison, for the calendar year 2006, Canadian visitors to Missouri spent an average of $318.89 per visit, ‘pretty close’ but Canadians take more time off for their vacations. At the same time, Canadian visitors vacationing in Canada spent an average of $265 per overnight trip, or 17 percent less in their own country.
In 2005, United Kingdom visitors to Missouri spent an average of $468 per visit. In 2007, Americans spent an average of $1,918 per person while vacationing in the U.K., not including air travel to and from U.K. or tour packages done in the U.S. prior to the trip.
Which countries have the most visitors to the United States and where do most U.S. visitors travel? For the fourth straight year, United States visitors set new records for travel and spending abroad in 2007.
According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the overall U.S. outbound market grew by 1 percent in 2007 compared to annual 2006 figures, enabling it to post the fourth successive record for total U.S. outbound travel. In 2007, 64.0 million U.S. residents traveled abroad, surpassing the 2006 record of 63.6 million. The growth came entirely in travel to the overseas regions, 31.2 million, up four percent. Travel to Mexico and Canada declined by one percent and three percent, respectively.
Spending by U.S. residents traveling abroad also set the fourth successive record in 2007 at $104.7 billion, up five percent from 2006. Spending by U.S. travelers within foreign countries totaled $76.2 billion and spending on air transportation, via foreign air carriers totaled $28.5 billion in 2007.
The top five countries where U.S. travelers spent their 2007 travel dollars were: Mexico ($11.1 billion), United Kingdom ($10.5 billion), Canada ($7.6 billion), Germany ($5.9 billion) and Japan ($4.7 billion).
The Top Outbound Markets
Mexico Mexico was the top U.S. international destination again in 2007 with 19.5 million travelers, even though travel was down 1 percent from 2006. Travel to Mexico has fluctuated over the last 10 years. The strongest growth periods were in 1995, up 20 percent; in 2000, up 10 percent; and 2004, also up 10 percent. Spending by U.S. travelers to Mexico, however, totaled a record $11.1 billion, up 2 percent from 2006, the previous record.
Canada Canada continues to be the second largest destination for U.S. international travelers, though first for the state of Missouri. In 2007, 13.4 million U.S. travelers visited our northern neighbor, down three percent from 2006. Although Canada generally has been a growth market over the last decade non-resident arrivals from Canada exceeded U.S. travelers to Canada again in 2007 for the second time since 1998. The peak year for U.S. travel to Canada was in 2002 with 16.2 million U.S. outbound travelers. Since then, U.S. travel to Canada has declined four of the last five years. Spending by U.S. travelers to Canada in 2007 totaled $7.6 billion, down two percent from 2006.
Overseas In 2007, a record 31.2 million U.S. travelers visited overseas markets, an increase of four percent from 2006. The top five overseas markets visited by U.S. travelers in 2007 were: the United Kingdom, Italy, France, Germany and Japan. If travel to China was combined with Hong Kong, China would have been third. Destinations that experienced the highest growth in U.S. visitation between 2006 and 2007 were Germany, up 15 percent, Japan, up 12 percent, Spain and India, both up 10 percent, and Italy, up eight percent. Contributing to the new record for outbound travel, six of the top 20 U.S. outbound destination markets posted records in 2007, including Italy, Japan, China, India and Hong Kong. Also, all Overseas, Eastern Europe, South America, Central America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia set regional records for U.S. outbound visits between 1997 and 2007.
The Top Inbound Markets The top 20 inbound visitor markets, accounted for 74 percent of all international arrivals to the U.S. during 2007 and as a group was up 11 percent compared to 2006. 16 of the top 20 arrival markets posted double-digit increases in 2007. Only one market, Japan, experienced a decline for the year.
Nine markets set records. Total arrivals have experienced 21 successive months of growth from April 2006. Here are the top five:
Canada Canadian arrivals totaled 17.7 million in 2007, 11 percent over 2006. Canadian spending (in the U.S. and for passenger fares on U.S. carriers) totaled $16.1 billion, up 21 percent.
Mexico Arrivals to the U.S. totaled a record 14.3 million, up 8 percent from 2006 and up 35 percent from 2000. Mexican spending (in the U.S. and for passenger fares on U.S carriers) totaled $9.5 billion, up 3 percent.
United Kingdom U.K. visitation to the U.S. totaled 4.5 million for 2007, up 8 percent from 2006. U.K. arrivals accounted for 41 percent of all travel from Western Europe in 2007, the same as in 2000 even though 2007 travel from the U.K. was down 4 percent from 2000. Total spending in U.S. was $14.9 billion.
Japan Japanese visitation totaled 3.5 million in 2007, down four percent from 2006. Total spending was $14.5 billion, down 1 percent. The year-over-year decline in arrivals occurred in spite of a generally strengthening yen.
Germany German visitation totaled 1.5 million, up 10 percent in 2007. The first through fourth quarters were up 10 percent,
5 percent, 10 percent and 15 percent, respectively. Total spending was $5.2 billion, up 23 percent from 2006.
Others in the top 20 are France, South Korea, Australia, Brazil, Italy, India, Peoples Republic of China and Hong Kong, Spain, Netherlands, Ireland, Venezuela, Colombia, Sweden, Israel and Taiwan.
Sources: Lake of the Ozarks Tri-County Lodging Association, the Missouri Division of Tourism, the University of Missouri, Strategic Marketing and Research, Inc., and the United State Department of Commerce, Office of Travel and Tourism Industries.
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