Written by By Staff Writer
A fifth of the countries visited by Americans in 2017 saw a rise in overnight visitors, according to data from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
A wider monthly distribution of six destinations would not have shown these increases: The U.S. reported separate data for four of the five destinations: Canada (up 2.8%), Mexico (up 4.1%), the UK (up 4%), and Australia (up 1.8%).
The overall number of U.S. visitors to these destinations rose 2.2% in January.
The best results came from Canada, Mexico and Australia. Canada saw an almost 4% increase in arrivals, with Mexican and Australian arrivals up by 3.6% and 0.9%, respectively.
The latest data only covers the period from the beginning of November 2018 to January 2019, but over the course of the year 2016 and 2017, it also included a slight decrease in some of the destinations.
At the time, Mexico represented the top overall source of visitors for the United States, with a 7.7% increase on 2017. The UK was the second most popular destination, down 1.2% on 2016.
Travelers primarily go to Mexico for visits to the beach and national parks. It’s the number-one destination for U.S. visitors, according to the Commerce Department, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom.
For the U.S. travel market in general, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said in December that “the expected offset of economic growth and decrease in passenger airline fares from 2017 to 2018 will lead to limited growth in leisure international travel.”
Although an upward trend for U.S. tourism abroad is expected to continue, it will slow down, and the OECD predicts less than 1% growth in 2019.