Despite President Donald Trump's controversial executive
orders on travel and immigration, international inbound travel grew 4 percent
year over year in April, according to the U.S. Travel Association. However
surprising, the association expects inbound international travel to weaken come
October and to trail the U.S. domestic market.
International air traffic into the U.S. reached a score of
52 on the USTA's Travel Trends Index, which is based on analysis by Oxford
Economics and assigns a numeric score to each travel segment. Any number above
50 indicates expected growth, and a number below indicates a decline. Had Trump's
January travel and immigration bans affected inbound travel, it would have begun
to register in April, as international visitors make trips to the U.S. an
average of 56.9 days after their initial travel search, according to USTA.
"There have been many claims that the administration's
actions on travel have tarnished America's brand abroad, but we're seeing hard
economic evidence of the U.S. travel sector's remarkable resilience," said
USTA president & CEO Roger Dow. "Even though we're encouraged by these
strong figures, we'll continue to urge the administration to more publicly send
the message that while the U.S. is closed to terror, it remains open for
business."
Domestic business travel declined 4 percent year over year
in April to 48, owing to the Easter holiday's switch from March to April.
The
overall travel index—which includes international, domestic, business and
leisure travel—has registered at or above the 50 mark for 88 straight months
and rose 1.4 percent year over year in April. The USTA expects domestic travel
demand for May through October to grow 1.8 percent over the same six-month
period in 2016.