U.S. citizens’ outbound travel from the USA to International Regions grew by 6.3% in 2018.

​The United States Government’s Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) recently released the full year 2018 figures for U.S. citizens outbound travel from the USA to International Regions.

U.S. Citizens Outbound Travel: 2018
Number of Trips	2018	% share	2017	% share	% change
Europe	17,742,258	19.1%	15,792,769	18.0%	12.3%
Caribbean	8,702,217	9.4%	8,320,516	9.5%	4.6%
Asia	6,252,903	6.7%	5,770,890	6.6%	8.4%
South America	2,104,107	2.3%	1,925,300	2.2%	9.3%
Central America	3,236,733	3.5%	3,032,002	3.5%	6.8%
Oceania	860,554	0.9%	776,496	0.9%	10.8%
Middle East	2,443,291	2.6%	2,306,334	2.6%	5.9%
Africa	431,745	0.5%	403,151	0.5%	7.1%
Mexico (Air)	10,075,187	10.8%	9,810,713	11.2%	2.7%
Mexico (Other)	26,847,824	28.9%	25,136,237	28.7%	6.8%
Canada	14,341,438	15.4%	14,280,387	16.3%	0.4%
Total	93,038,257	100.0%	87,554,795	100.0%	6.3%
Source: ITA: National Travel & Tourism Office
Released: February 2019

The numbers for air traffic both to and from all international regions (on US and foreign flagged carriers) are reported to the NTTO by means of the “U.S. International Air Travel Statistics Report”.
For more details of this survey go to: -
http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/research/programs/i92/index.html
​
As can be seen: -

• The overall number of trips taken by US citizens to international destinations increased by 6.3% in 2018 compared to 2017, growing from 87.5 million trips in 2017 to 93.0 million trips in 2018.
• The largest growth was in trips to Europe (up 12.3%), growing from 15.8 million trips in 2017 to 17.7 million trips in 2018. Europe’s share of all trips grew from 18.0% in 2017 to 19.1% in 2018.
• The number of trips taken to the Caribbean grew by 4.6%, from 8.3 million trips in 2017 to 8.7 million trips in 2018. The share of trips taken to the Caribbean thus fell from 9.5% in 2017 to 9.4% in 2018.
• The number of trips taken to Mexico by air grew by just 2.7%, from 9.8 million trips in 2017 to 10.0 million trips in 2018.

The NTTO’s definition of the Caribbean does not include Puerto Rico or the United States Virgin Islands as, for the purposes of the study, they are deemed to be US territories and the focus of this system (APIS) is non-stop air traffic (segmented here for U.S. citizens) to foreign countries, thus does not include substantial declines in trips to both Puerto Rico and The USVI.
The NTTO defines the Caribbean as including the following countries: -
Included in Caribbean for APIS:
 

• Anguilla
• Antigua/Barbuda
• Aruba
• The Bahamas
• Barbados
• Bermuda
• British Virgin Islands.
• Cuba
• Dominica
• Dominican Republic
• Grand Cayman (Cayman Islands)
• Grenada
• Guadeloupe
• Haiti
• Jamaica
• Martinique
• Netherlands Antilles (including Bonaire, Curacao and Sint Maarten)
• St Kitts/Nevis
• St Lucia
• St. Vincent
• Trinidad/Tobago
• Turks/Caicos

US Citizens Outbound Travel to the Caribbean 2018

U.S. Citizens Outbound Travel - Caribbean
	2018	2017	% change
Jan	598,896	621,686	-3.7%
Feb	673,271	683,538	-1.5%
Mar	889,631	822,751	8.1%
Apr	722,504	783,076	-7.7%
May	725,539	714,117	1.6%
Jun	900,872	865,847	4.0%
Jul	951,631	959,510	-0.8%
Aug	746,542	718,092	4.0%
Sep	451,939	356,693	26.7%
Oct	537,150	473,086	13.5%
Nov	654,185	567,498	15.3%
Dec	850,057	754,622	12.6%
YTD	8,702,217	8,320,516	4.6%

US Citizens Outbound Travel Total 2018

U.S. Citizens Outbound Travel - Total
	2018	2017	% change
Jan	6,057,128	5,670,475	6.8%
Feb	6,007,548	5,562,187	8.0%
Mar	7,983,318	6,976,771	14.4%
Apr	6,885,644	6,914,368	-0.4%
May	7,915,303	7,452,730	6.2%
Jun	9,756,362	9,280,209	5.1%
Jul	9,959,378	9,750,504	2.1%
Aug	9,011,316	8,192,258	10.0%
Sep	7,304,529	6,826,425	7.0%
Oct	6,948,874	6,515,675	6.6%
Nov	6,861,084	6,489,528	5.7%
Dec	8,347,774	7,923,666	5.4%
YTD	93,038,257	87,554,795	6.3%
Source: ITA: National Travel & Tourism Office

​Caribbean share of total outbound trips made by US citizens 2018

U.S. Citizens Outbound Travel - Caribbean Share
	2018	2017	% pt change
Jan	9.9%	11.0%	-1.1%
Feb	11.2%	12.3%	-1.1%
Mar	11.1%	11.8%	-0.6%
Apr	10.5%	11.3%	-0.8%
May	9.2%	9.6%	-0.4%
Jun	9.2%	9.3%	-0.1%
Jul	9.6%	9.8%	-0.3%
Aug	8.3%	8.8%	-0.5%
Sep	6.2%	5.2%	1.0%
Oct	7.7%	7.3%	0.5%
Nov	9.5%	8.7%	0.8%
Dec	10.2%	9.5%	0.7%
YTD	9.4%	9.5%	-0.1%
Source: ITA: National Travel & Tourism Office
Released: February 2019