The latest Travel Trends Index (TTI), released by the U.S. Travel Association, revealed that U.S. domestic travel in November grew by 2.2 percent over the previous year, even as international inbound travel continued a downward spiral.
In all, the month’s domestic travel growth hit 2.4 percent, in large part thanks to the success of the leisure travel segment, which experienced 3.4 percent growth.
International inbound travel continued to fall throughout November, by 0.4 percent. TTI predicted this would reach 0.6 percent over the next six months when compared to the previous year. Such figures have been backed up by U.S. Travel’s forecast, which projected a full 1 percent decline in international visitation to the U.S. by the end of 2019.
The U.S. Travel Association seems to think the decline can be attributed to marketing.
“The recent slide in U.S. share of the international travel market would have been significantly worse without Brand USA promoting the United States, and Congress signaled a commitment and need for the United States to grow its global market share by renewing Brand USA late in a busy session,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said.
The Brand USA marketing agency was renewed through 2027 thanks to a reauthorization measure tacked onto a broader Congressional spending package.
The problem of such travel is not a global issue. TTI projected that global long-haul travel would grow by an average of 4.8 percent through 2023. Instead, the issue lies with the United States, where growth is expected to reach no higher than half of that. The diminishing U.S. share of the long-haul travel market could fall to 10.4 percent by 2023 — a long fall from its peak at 13.7 percent in 2015.
All data showcased in the TTI was prepared by the research firm Oxford Economics.