US DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE last Friday announced that 4.3m international visitors travelled to the United States in August 2005, an increase of almost 7% over August 2004. Arrivals were also up 8% for the first eight months of 2005 compared to 2004. These figures are in spite of some of the most vigorous immigration checks anywhere in the world, enough to put off many innocent leisure tourists to even bother. Noticeably arrivals from the UK declined by 4% compared to August 2004, although they were up for the first eight months of 2005 over 2004. For port activity see http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/m-2005-I-001/port_entry05.html To see the top markets and regional data, please go to
http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/m-2005-I-001/index.html