In spite of a drop of 1% compared with the same month from last year, the United Kingdom still easily topped the numbers of incoming tourists to the United States from Western Europe in January. Of the 576,000 visitors, 236,000 came from the UK.
Clearly the perceived problems of immigration and customs at the American ports of entry is still having an effect on the British market, but the drop however, is not as bad as 2006 when it was 4% down on the previous year.
It does seem likely that with the pound sterling at around or above the two-dollar mark for the rest of the year, that the British market will remain strong.
Only Canada, Mexico and Japan move bigger numbers, with the Nippon volume dropping by a dramatic 10% during the last 12 months.
Overseas US arrivals (excluding Canada and Mexico) increased 2% compared to January 2006, to 1.5m. Incoming tourists from overseas markets have now posted four consecutive months of growth.
What is still very disturbing is the US attitude towards visa applications from UK citizens and others legally in the UK. The American Embassy in Grosvenor Square, London, has clearly not read the ”user friendly” manuals, unlike most of the US gateway airports, which go out of their way to welcome visitors.
New York, that is essentially JFK, is still the most popular entry port to the US, the air and sea total coming to 207,000 in January, an increase of 8% on 2006. Next up is Miami, but here the figure is significantly distorted by cruise passengers, who are counted as visitors.
Los Angeles welcomed 164,000 incoming overseas people for the same period, San Francisco was next up with 94,000, closely followed by Newark, New Jersey (89,000) and Chicago (86,000).