International Visitors – Good For Our Trade Balance And Great For American Jobs

People pass through security checks as they enter the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. With hundreds of artifacts on display, the museum is one of the most visited sites in Washington. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Travel marketers around the country are going all out to welcome the more than 77 million international visitors who are expected to arrive in the US this year. And with good reason: international visitors are big business. Foreign visitors spend about 4 times per day more than what US resident travelers do when they travel domestically. In 2016, even though the strong US dollar weighed on international travel growth, global travelers spent $246 billion in the US. By contrast, Americans spent about $159 billion during their travels outside the US last year, generating an $87 billion travel trade surplus, larger than any other US industry. Even more impressive, the money international visitors spend while in our country helps support more than 15.3 million American jobs.

International travel and tourism includes all types of travel – leisure, business, conference, educational, medical and visiting friends and family. Thus, international travel is viewed as an export because the product doesn’t leave the US. It’s our most important, yet often underreported, service export because the US is the product. Read more…