U.S. Outbound Tourism Snapshot for May 2014

Asia and Latin America are both the benefactors of an
improving U.S. economy that is giving residents the ability and
confidence to travel overseas again.

— Samantha Shankman

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The number of U.S. citizens traveling abroad in the first six
months of 2014 increased six percent year-over-year to 32.6 million,
according to monthly statistics released this week by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office.


Every month, the NTTO releases data regarding recent travel
activity, including details about outbound travel from the United
States. This is the most recent month for which this information is
available.


Slightly more than half of those travelers, 53 percent, crossed
borders to Mexico (38 percent) and Canada (15 percent). The other 47
percent of U.S. citizens traveled overseas, with the Europe and the
Caribbean, unsurprisingly, capturing the greatest market share.


Worth noting is that Asia captured 7 percent of the market share in
the first six months of the year, which was more than Central America (5
percent) and South America (3 percent) despite the distance and higher
airfare needed to get there.


Monthly statistics; however, show a slightly different trend.


In June, U.S. outbound travel grew 10 percent to 7.3 million
travelers. The regions with the highest growth in terms of inbound U.S.
visitors were South America, up 21 percent, and Mexico, up 14 percent.


Asia still experienced growth, but at a slightly slower rate of 8 percent.


U.S. Citizen Travel to International Regions in 2014 by Month (000s)

Regions	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Total YTD	% Change YTD	Market Share YTD
North America	2,439	2,442	2,846	2,750	3,031	3,693	17,202	14.1%	52.7%
Europe	578	497	807	868	1,306	1,614	5,670	4.8%	17.4%
Caribbean	499	550	705	630	624	743	3,751	9.2%	11.5%
Asia	376	313	397	382	379	424	2,272	4%	7%
South America	128	138	155	123	144	208	896	4.1%	2.7%
Central America	219	226	283	214	209	301	1,452	10.2%	4.5%
Oceania	52	63	60	41	46	45	307	6%	0.9%
Middle East	140	119	141	142	162	181	885	10.8%	2.7%
Africa	24	21	28	28	36	41	177	-0.5%	0.5

 – Skift