The US Department of Commerce announced this week a record $107.4bn (”55.1bn) in international travel receipts ” travel-related tourism spending, including passenger fares ” for the United States in 2006. This spending represents a full recovery in export value since 11September 2001, and surpasses the previous record of $103.1bn (”52.8bn) set in 2000. The figures are in fact collated by the Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI), state-funded within the US Department of Commerce.
”We have seen full recovery in spending by visitors to the United States since September 11, surpassing the record mark set the previous year,” said deputy assistant secretary for services Ana Guevara: ”This is good news for the US travel and tourism industry, which employed 8.3m Americans last year.”
Purchases of travel and tourism-related goods and services by international visitors totalled $85.8bn (”44bn) for the year, an increase of 5% over 2005. These goods and services include food, lodging, recreation, gifts, entertainment, local transportation in the United States, and other items incidental to international travel. These figures make for particularly good reading for British airlines, accounting for 80% of the traffic on London ” New York, the world”s busiest long haul international air route.
Some interesting facts emerge from the report: Passenger fares received by US carriers and US vessel operators from international visitors only increased by 3%, an indication that foreign airlines, generally with a superior service, are eating away at the US percentage of the market. And to emphasise the importance of tourism and travel the Department of Commerce says that travel and tourism accounts for 7% of all overseas revenues and 26% of services income. Travel and tourism supported 8.3m American jobs in 2006, of which 1.1m were supported by travel and tourism exports. More people are employed by travel and tourism-related industries than are employed in the construction industry, the business and financial industries, agriculture, education, or healthcare.