The Latest Study on Travel and Tourism in the U.S.
Monday, December 8, 2014
Recently, Timetric published a study to measure Travel and Tourism in the U.S. and its projected growth through 2018. Below are some of the key findings from the study.
International Travel
Globally, the U.S. is the largest market for inbound tourist revenue, and revenue numbers are growing steadily. Back in 2009, the U.S. saw $119.3 billion from inbound tourist expenditures. By 2013 that number had grown to a whopping $170.9 billion. Timetric feels that this growth is due to international campaigns and promotions.
Over the past few years, the U.S. has implemented campaigns such as Brand USA to educate international traveler about the United States. In the program’s mission statement, Brand USA shares that this increased travel will bring billions of dollars to the U.S., expanding our travel market and creating thousands of jobs for Americans.
Between 2009 and 2013, the study had shown that the highest number of international tourists came from Brazil, India, Russia, and China. Travelers from China increased from 880,400 in 2009 to an incredible 2.2 million in 2013. Similarly, visitors from Brazil increased from 892,600 to 2.1 million from 2009–2013.
Domestic Travel
While the U.S. is promoting travel campaigns in countries such as Canada and Germany, state-level campaigns are assisting domestic travel. Overall, domestic tourism still dominates the U.S. market. In 2013, domestic tourism accounted for 96.7% of all trips. In 2013 Americans took 2.1 billion domestic trips. By 2018, Research Moz anticipates that this number will reach 2.2 billion and tourist expenditure is expected to reach $945.4 billion.
What does this mean for the timeshare industry?
As far as international timeshare resorts, we’ve already heard that timeshare groups are expanding to Asia. Prominent companies such as Wyndham and RCI are expanding their timeshare networks to include more locations in Asia, such as China. For domestic travel, timeshares and timeshare rentals can be utilized to travel almost anywhere within the U.S. Flexible, points-based memberships in particular will become increasingly more useful as domestic travel increases through 2018.
To read the entire study, visit ResearchMoz.us.