WASHINGTON – U.S. Under Secretary of Commerce for International Trade Stefan M. Selig today announced that international visitors spent $21.0 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States in April, an increase of more than three percent when compared to April 2015.
“International visitors spent $700 million dollars a day while traveling throughout the United States in April,” Under Secretary Selig said. “Travel and tourism continues to shine as our nation’s number one services export. Today’s report is good news for the 1.1 million Americans who work in travel-related jobs.”
International visitors have spent $84.1 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services year to date (January through April), an increase of 4 percent when compared to the same period last year; conversely, Americans have spent an estimated $52.4 billion abroad, yielding a balance of trade surplus of nearly $31.8 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 $13.3 billion during April, an increase of more than 2 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 April.
- Passenger Fare Receipts: Fares received by U.S. carriers from international visitors totaled $3.3 billion for the month, a decrease of 5 percent when compared to April 2015. Passenger fare receipts accounted for16 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in April.
- Medical/Education/Short-Term Worker(1): Expenditures for educational and health-related tourism, along with all expenditures by border, seasonal, and other short-term workers, totaled nearly $4.4 billion in April, an increase of more than 13 percent when compared to the same period last year. Medical tourism, education, and short-term worker receipts accounted for nearly 21 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in April.
(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
