Travel to or within the U.S. grew 4 percent year over year in June, according to the U.S. Travel Association's Travel Trends Index. Both domestic business and domestic leisure travel contributed to the growth. USTA attributed the increased traffic to income growth and lower taxes. International inbound travel, however, slowed but remained positive.
USTA forecasts total U.S. travel volume will grow 2.6 percent year over year for the second half of 2018. In that same period, domestic travel will grow at the same pace, supported by stronger consumer spending and business investment, while international inbound travel will grow 2.2 percent. However, USTA cautioned that rising oil prices and uncertainty around tariffs could dampen growth in the coming months. Furthermore, USTA said the rate of growth is not strong enough to help the U.S. regain its slipping share of the global travel market.
The Travel Trends Index is based on public and private sector data. Sources include advance search and bookings from Adara and nSight; airline booking data from the Airlines Reporting Corp.; recorded international U.S. inbound visits from the International Air Transport Association, OAG, Sabre Market Intelligence, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Statistics Canada and Banco de Mexico; and hotel room demand data from STR.
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