WASHINGTON – Acting Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Ken Hyatt today announced that international visitors spent more than $21 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States in October, an increase of more than two percent ($493 million) when compared to October 2015.
“In October, U.S. travel and tourism exports hit another record. Travel and tourism remains a vital export for the United States and these exports support more than one million jobs across our country,” said Hyatt. “Today’s data highlights continued growth in this sector with international visitors spending, on average, $672 million a day on travel and tourism services in the United States in October.”
International visitors have spent $204.9 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services year to date (January through October), relatively unchanged (-0.02%) when compared to record-breaking levels of spending last year; conversely, Americans have spent an estimated $132.1 billion abroad, yielding a balance of trade surplus of nearly $72.8 billion year to date.
Monthly Summary
- Travel Receipts: Purchases of travel and tourism-related goods and services by international visitors traveling in the United States totaled $13.2 billion during October, an increase of 1 percent when compared to last year. These goods and services include food, lodging, recreation, gifts, entertainment, local transportation in the United States, and other items incidental to foreign travel. Travel receipts accounted for 63 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in October.
- Passenger Fare Receipts: Fares received by U.S. carriers from international visitors totaled $3.3 billion for the month, a decrease of 3 percent when compared to October 2015. Passenger fare receipts accounted for 16 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in October.
- Medical/Education/Short-Term Worker(1): Â Expenditures for educational and health-related tourism, along with all expenditures by border, seasonal, and other short-term workers, totaled nearly $4.6 billion in October, an appreciable increase of nearly12 percent when compared to the same period last year. Medical tourism, education, and short-term worker receipts accounted for 22 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in October.
Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, National Travel and Tourism Office and the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
U.S. Energy Information Administration (Jet Fuel Spot Price FOB)
(1) In June 2014 the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) completed the most comprehensive restructuring of the U.S. international economic accounts since 1976 in an effort to bring our international accounts into closer conformity with international guidelines. As a result, BEA now uses a broader definition of travel that includes education-related and health-related travel and expenditures on goods and services by border, seasonal, and other short-term workers. Therefore, all travel and tourism-related trade data have been revised back to 1999. To learn more, please visit:http://travel.trade.gov/pdf/restructuring-travel.pdf
