International Trade Administration | July 17, 2023

Data recently released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) show that in May 2023:

  • International visitors spent more than $17.5 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within, the United States, an increase of nearly 26 percent compared to May 2022 and the highest level of monthly spending since the onset of COVID-19 in February 2020.
  • Conversely, Americans spent nearly $17.0 billion traveling abroad during May, yielding a balance of trade surplus of $530 million, only the fourth month during which U.S. travel and tourism exports have outpaced imports in the last year.
  • International visitors have spent nearly $84.7 billion on U.S. travel and tourism-related goods and services year-to-date (YTD [January through May 2023]), an increase of nearly 41 percent when compared to 2022; international visitors have injected, on average, nearly $561 million a day into the U.S. economy YTD.

Composition of Monthly Spending (Travel Exports)

  • Travel Spending 
    • Purchases of travel and tourism-related goods and services by international visitors traveling in the United States totaled $9.7 billion during May 2023 (compared to $7.2 billion in May 2022), an increase of nearly 34 percent when compared to the previous 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 55 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in May 2023.
  • Passenger Fare Receipts
    • Fares received by U.S. carriers from international visitors totaled $3.2 billion in May 2023 (compared to $2.5 billion in the previous year), up 30 percent when compared to May 2022. These receipts represent expenditures by foreign residents on international flights provided by U.S. air carriers.
    • Passenger fare receipts accounted for 18 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in May 2023.
  • Medical/Education/Short-Term Worker Spending
    • Expenditures for educational and health-related tourism, along with all expenditures by border, seasonal, and other short-term workers in the United States totaled $4.7 billion in May 2023 (compared to $4.2 billion in May 2022), an increase of 10 percent when compared to the previous year.
    • Medical tourism, education, and short-term worker expenditures accounted for 27 percent of total U.S. travel and tourism exports in May 2023.

Interested in an interactive data visualization of these statistics? Please visit our Monthly Travel Trade Monitor for a more comprehensive and customizable experience.