US share of international tourism slipping

Although a weakened U.S. dollar often translates into an increase in the number of foreign visitors to the U.S., this doesn’t seem to be materializing during the summer of 2008.

Explanations include sustained post-9/11 security headaches, lower airfares in other parts of the world, and poor marketing by the American tourism industry. Regardless of the cause, experts are saying that the U.S. has missed an important opportunity to counter the decline in domestic tourism that has followed on rising fuel prices.

The U.N. World Tourism Organization reports that the U.S. had roughly the same number of international visitors in 2006 as it did in 2000 - 51 million, representing about seven percent of the number of international arrivals world-wide. As the world-wide numbers increased, the relative percentage of arrivals in the U.S. dropped to six percent.

America’s share of international tourism revenues has also slipped, although the country fared better than any other single country in the world in 2006. The decrease was from 16 percent of the international market in 2000 ($82.4 billion) to 12 percent in 2006 ($86 billion).

All major U.S. destinations saw fewer travelers, with the exception of New York. Cities such as Boston, Chicago, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C., saw drops of 20 to 34 percent in 2006 as compared with 2000. Only New York experienced an increase in 2006 over 2000, with an increase of nine percent, or 6.2 million arrivals, according to U.S. Commerce Department data.

www.world-tourism.org/