US inbound travel continues to struggle latest data reveals
Inbound travel to the US continues to struggle in the aftermath of president Donald Trump’s travel ban and the Brexit referendum.
International numbers flying to the US in the first two months of 2018 was flat year-on-year following a 2% overall slump in arrivals last year.
The decline followed the first of the Trump travel bans on travellers from a group of mainly Muslim countries.
The ban hit arrivals not only from the Middle East and Africa, but also from Europe, according to new data published by ForwardKeys which predicts future travel patterns by analysing 17 million booking transactions a day.
The findings show that the impact of the downward value of sterling against the dollar, following the 2016 Brexit vote, persisted well into 2017 and put off many UK travellers, one of the biggest travel markets to the US.
The number of Chinese visitors to the US also flattened out in 2017 after substantial growth the previous year.
Looking forward six months, international bookings to the US from within the Americas region are 7% ahead over the same time last year.
But long-haul bookings from elsewhere in the world are just 0.5% ahead.
Mexico – whose citizens may have been put off by Donald Trump’s border wall project – are showing signs of returning to the US, with forward bookings to August are ahead by 28.9%.
Brazil’s emergence from economic crisis continues to be reflected in bookings to the US – currently ahead 24.8%.
Within the US, Miami – traditionally Florida’s biggest destination city – is battlling for business with neighbouring Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.
It lost German, British and Mexican travellers to its two rivals during the past year with an overall performance down 1%.
German travellers in particular are transferring to Miami’s competitor destinations from other cities such as New York and Atlanta.
In addition, British Airways started flights to Fort Lauderdale last July as a convenient option for joining cruises.
ForwardKeys chief executive and co-founder, Olivier Jager, said: “Travel to, and within, the United States has seen fluctuating trends in recent years and one hopes that the latest booking numbers for travel within the Americas indicate an upturn.
“However, the changeable booking patterns demonstrate the need for fast accurate data to keep pace with events in order to make sound economic decisions whether one’s business is within the travel industry or beyond.”
