Due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, outbound tourism from the United States to Latin America and the Caribbean was highly affected from March 2020 onwards. In that month, only 635 thousand U.S. tourists traveled to that region, down by the over 1.3 million recorded in February 2020. In April and May of that, the outbound tourism volume for the North American giant to Latin America fell to four-digit numbers, and while it showed a recovery in the following months, it remained far below pre-pandemic figures.

The number of businesses in the tourism sector in the United States was 401.09 thousand in 2021, down from the previous year's total of 361.53 thousand. In 2022, the number of businesses in this sector was forecast to reach 435.15 thousand.

 In 2024, approximately 1.6 million visitors from China arrived in the United States, representing a significant increase from the previous year. Before the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, around 2.83 million arrivals were recorded for the year 2019. Tourism in the United States In 2024, the United States had more than 72 million international visitors, where the majority of visitors to the United States came from the North American countries Canada and Mexico, with China being the fourth biggest source of Asian tourists, after India, Japan, and South Korea. However, in terms of travel spending in the United States, in 2023, Chinese tourists were estimated to have spent more than any other Asian country, explaining the increasingly important role played by Chinese tourists among other international tourists. Outbound tourism from China In the past decade, the number of outbound Chinese tourists has soared threefold, with the vast majority of trips being made for private purpose. The United States was one of the popular international travel destinations among Chinese a few years back, despite Thailand, Japan, and Vietnam still being very popular potentially due to the shorter distance to travel. Chinese tourists also became more willing to spend when they travel. The share of outbound tourism expenditure in China’s GDP exceeded two percent for several years before the coronavirus pandemic.

The number of inbound international visitors to the United States more than doubled from 2021 to 2022. In 2022, there were 50.87 million international visitors to the U.S., up from the previous year's total of 22.28 million.

When surveyed in 2022, it was found that Florida and New York were the two most visited states by adults in the United States, having been visited by 61 and 54 percent of respondents, respectively. Although it is not a state, the federal district of Washington, D.C. proved a popular travel destination for respondents, 49 percent of whom claimed to have visited the U.S. capital. In contrast, only 13 percent of respondents said they had visited Alaska, making it the least-visited state.

What is the most visited national park in the U.S.?

With approximately 15.7 million recreational visits in 2022, the Blue Ridge Parkway was the most visited National Park Service park in the United States. The park extends 469 miles through Virginia and North Carolina, connecting the Shenandoah National Park to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Meanwhile, the number of recreational visitors to Yellowstone National Park in 2022 was 3.29 million, down from the previous year’s total of 4.86 million.

How many domestic leisure trips do Americans take?

The number of domestic leisure trips in the U.S. amounted to 1.88 billion in 2022. As estimated, domestic leisure travels in the U.S. dropped to 1.4 billion in 2020. This was due to travel restrictions related to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. It is forecast that the number of leisure trips will recover gradually during the following years, reaching two billion by 2026. The number of business trips, by comparison, is forecast to reach 480 million that same year.

In 2023, Mexico was the leading outbound travel market in the United States based on the share of tourist departures, at 28 percent, showing a slight decline over 2019. Canada and the United Kingdom followed in second and third place, representing 10 and four percent of outbound tourist departures, respectively.

In 2023, the number of travelers from Japan to the United States amounted to approximately 1.52 million, increasing compared to the previous year. The United States is the most common travel destination of Japanese travelers visiting the North American region.

In 2020, the number of U.S. Americans on Aruba went down by nearly 65 percent to only 295.3 thousand. In the previous years, the volume of U.S. visitors in the constituent country of the Netherlands had rose steadily. In total, Aruba recorded an annual number of nearly two million international tourist arrivals prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the number of international tourist arrivals in the United States from all world regions declined significantly. For instance, the number of visitor arrivals from other American countries went down from more than 48 million in 2019 to only 14.2 million in 2020, according to the data provided by the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO). In that year, the region accounting for the lowest number of inbound visitor arrivals to the U.S. was Africa.

Inbound tourism spending on experiences in the United States recovered in 2023, following a sharp drop with the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. While the expenditure of international travelers on experiences was roughly 25 percent higher in March 2023 than in 2019, inbound spending on things reported a 15 percent decline over the same period.

The number of visitors to the United States from Western Europe increased significantly in 2022. In that year, the number of visitors to the U.S. from Western Europe reached 10.34 million, up from the previous year's total of 1.7 million.

The number of international tourist arrivals worldwide increased significantly in 2024 over the previous year, nearly catching up with pre-pandemic levels. After declining with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to roughly 406 million, the lowest figure recorded since 1989, global inbound tourist arrivals exceeded 1.4 billion in 2024, being just 1.3 percent lower than in 2019. Europe is the most popular destination for international tourism Europe is the global region that attracts the highest number of international tourists. In 2024, inbound tourist arrivals in Europe exceeded pre-pandemic levels, totaling almost 750 million. Within this region, Southern and Mediterranean Europe was the most popular area for international tourism, recording over 300 million arrivals in 2024. How big is the global travel and tourism market? According to Statista Mobility Market Insights, the global travel and tourism market's revenue – including hotels, package holidays, vacation rentals, and camping – amounted to nearly 880 billion U.S. dollars in 2023, recovering from the impact of COVID-19. Breaking down travel and tourism's revenue worldwide by sales channels reveals that the online channel generated over two-thirds of the global transactions' value that year.

The number of visitors to the United States from Venezuela decreased slightly in 2024. In that year, the number of visitors to the U.S. from Venezuela fell to 210,073, down from the previous year's total of 211,372.

There were approximately 2.25 billion domestic trips taken in the United States in 2022. Around 1.88 billion of these were taken by leisure travelers. Both the number of business and leisure trips were forecast to increase annually between 2023 and 2027.

In 2022, travel spending in the United States reached 1.02 trillion U.S. dollars. Due to travel restrictions relating to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, 2020 saw a significant decline in travel spending, falling to 0.72 trillion U.S. dollars. This figure is forecast to reach as much as 1.22 trillion by 2027.

In 2020, the gross domestic product (GDP) of Central and South America had suffered a contraction of more than 110 billion U.S. dollars due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on tourism. Meanwhile, the global travel restrictions imposed due to the health crisis caused a GDP decline of roughly 33 billion U.S. dollars in the Caribbean. In consequence, tourism employment was also severely affected in those regions that year.

Tourism contribution to GDP in Latin America and the Caribbean

The gross domestic product (GDP) measures the value of all goods and services produced in a country or a region within a certain period. Excluding Mexico, the total contribution of the tourism sector to Latin America and the Caribbean’s GDP saw a moderate but overall positive trend during the past decade, surpassing 350 billion U.S. dollars in 2019. In Mexico alone, nearly two trillion Mexican pesos (more than 100 billion U.S. dollars at exchange rates of December 31, 2019) were added that year to the country’s GDP by tourism-related activities.

COVID-19 impact on travel and tourism in Mexico

Mexico is not only the leading country for tourism in Latin America but also one of the key players in the travel sector worldwide. For most of 2020, the Mexican government opted out of travel restrictions and lockdowns. This measure, however, did not rescue the country's tourism sector from the harsh impact of COVID-19. As of October of that year, Mexico was among the travel destinations most affected by the pandemic, with tourism revenue losses amounting to nearly 14 billion U.S. dollars.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic hit the tourism industry hard in 2020, with emergency measures adopted by many governments massively disrupting international travel. As a result, it was estimated that the United States recorded a tourism revenue loss of roughly 147 billion U.S. dollars between January and October 2020. Meanwhile, Spain reported the second-highest drop in tourism revenue, losing about 46.7 billion U.S. dollars over the period considered.

The number of international tourist arrivals worldwide rose sharply in 2023 compared to the previous year across all the most visited destinations in the world. Overall, France was the most visited country by inbound travelers worldwide in 2023, with 100 million international tourist arrivals. Spain, the United States, and Italy followed in the ranking that year. Has global inbound tourism recovered from the impact of COVID-19? In 2023, the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide totaled approximately 1.3 billion. While this figure represented a 33 percent annual increase, it remained below the peak in inbound tourist arrivals reported in 2019, the year before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. That said, international tourism receipts worldwide exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2023, peaking at 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars. What are the most popular global regions for inbound tourism? When breaking down the number of international tourist arrivals worldwide by region, Europe has consistently reported the highest volume of inbound travelers, both before and after the impact of the health crisis. In 2023, this region alone accounted for roughly 55 percent of global inbound tourist arrivals. Meanwhile, Asia and the Pacific recorded the second-highest number of inbound tourist arrivals worldwide in 2023.

Tourism spending in Los Angeles in California was predicted to reach 12 billion U.S. dollars in 2020, when taking into account the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic - the figure includes spending on hotels, restaurants, and sight-seeing trips. This was less than half the size of the original 'pre-coronavirus' forecast, which was 25 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2023, Chile received more than 3.7 million international tourist arrivals, showing an increase of 84 percent versus the previous year. In 2020, the South American country experienced an annual drop in international tourism volume of 75.2 percent. However, 2021 had the lowest number of visitor arrivals in years, with only 190 thousand. Chile’s inbound tourism reached the peak of the past decade in 2017, at more than 6.4 million arrivals.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Chilean tourism economy

As a logical consequence of the decline of international tourism volume in Chile, the receipts generated by this sector’s segment in the country went down by approximately 70 percent in the first pandemic year and are not expected to bounce back to pre-coronavirus levels up in the 2020s. Though not only the Chilean international tourism economy was significantly affected by this crisis. The contribution to GDP of the entire tourism sector in the South American nation decreased six percentage points in 2020 and could only fully recover by the mid-2020s.

Chile’s competitiveness in the travel and tourism sector

With an overall score of 4.3 out of the seven possible points in the Travel and Tourism Development Index (TTDI) of 2021, Chile managed to place itself third in the TTDI ranking for the Americas that year. Five of the 14 pillars evaluated to measure the country’s competitiveness in this sector received five or more points. Of these indicators, information and communications technology (ICT) readiness as well as price competitiveness performed the best. On the other hand, Chile exhibited the weakest score in the area evaluating its cultural resources.