The 2015 Spring Travel Forecast
June 1, 2015Jennifer Gardner is an intern in the Office of Public Affairs.
Today, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker attended the U.S. Travel Association’s IPW conference where she spoke on the continued strong growth for international travel to the United States. Secretary Pritzker announced the 2015 Spring Travel Forecast which projects the United States will see 3.8 to 4.6 percent annual growth rates in visitor volume during the 2015-2020 timeframe. By 2020, this growth would produce 96.4 million visitors, an increase of 21 million visitors when compared to 2014.
More than 1,000 U.S. travel organizations from every region of the nation, and more than 1,300 international and domestic buyers from more than 70 countries are gathered this week at IPW in Orlando, Florida. This conference is the travel industry’s premier international marketplace and the largest generator of travel to the United States.
Travel to the United States supported 1.1 million jobs and brought in $221 billion in 2014. As the visitor volume is expected to increase 3.8 percent in 2015, the amount of visitors staying one or more nights is projected to reach 77.6 million.
It’s no surprise that the top two markets generating visitors to the United States are Canada and Mexico. Expected to grow by 6.3 million from 2014 to 2015, Mexico would set another record volume level. Canada is also expecting a 15 percent increase.
The Asia-Pacific region is projected to generate a 49 percent increase in visitors by 2020. With these projections, China would account for the second-largest number of additional visitors behind Mexico.
Europe and South America are also anticipated to realize a 21 and 34 percent increase in visitors to the United States by 2020, respectively. Europe is projected to reach 16.7 million visitors with the largest growth coming from the United Kingdom, France, Italy, and Germany. South America will generate nearly 1.9 million more visitors. Visitors from Brazil, the largest source market in the South American region, are expected to increase 38 percent by 2020.
See the full 2015 Spring Travel Forecast at http://travel.trade.gov/view/f-2000-99-001/index.html.
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