U.S. citizens’ outbound travel from the USA to International Regions grew by 7.6% in the first eight months of 2019

The United States Government’s Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) recently released the figures for U.S. citizens outbound travel from the USA to International Regions for the first eight months of 2019.

U.S. Citizens Outbound International Travel
January - August 2019

Number of Trips	2019	% share	2018	% share	% change
Europe	13,109,311	19.2%	12,198,046	19.2%	7.5%
Caribbean	6,911,474	10.1%	6,208,886	9.8%	11.3%
Asia	4,324,381	6.3%	4,123,264	6.5%	4.9%
South America	1,555,725	2.3%	1,374,214	2.2%	13.2%
Central America	2,446,628	3.6%	2,291,032	3.6%	6.8%
Oceania	633,703	0.9%	546,672	0.9%	15.9%
Middle East	1,694,046	2.5%	1,682,909	2.7%	0.7%
Africa	364,091	0.5%	291,864	0.5%	24.7%
Mexico (Air)	7,101,082	10.4%	7,126,522	11.2%	-0.4%
Mexico (Other)	19,257,194	28.2%	17,207,534	27.1%	11.9%
Canada	10,780,637	15.8%	10,330,074	16.3%	4.4%
Total	68,178,272	100.0%	63,381,017	100.0%	7.6%

Source: ITA: National Travel & Tourism Office
Released: November 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 
https://travel.trade.gov/research/programs/ifs/index.asp

As can be seen: -

• The overall number of trips taken by US citizens to international destinations increased by 7.6% in the first eight months of 2019 compared to the same eight months of 2018, growing from 63.4 million trips in 2018 to 68.2 million trips in 2019.
• The largest absolute growth was in trips by land to Mexico which grew from 17.2 million trips in 2018 to 19.3 million in 2019. Trips to Europe grew by  911,265  visitors (up 7.5%) from 12.2 million trips in 2018 to 13.1 million trips in 2019. Europe’s share of all trips remained steady at 19.2%.
• The number of trips taken to the Caribbean grew by 11.3%, from 6.2 million trips in 2018 to 6.9 million trips in 2019. The share of trips taken to the Caribbean grew from 9.8% in 2018 to 10.1% in 2019.
• The number of trips taken to Mexico by air fell by 0.4%, from 7.126 million trips in 2018 to 7.10 million trips in 2019.

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 the system (APIS) is non-stop air traffic (segmented here for U.S. citizens) to foreign countries.  
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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

U.S. Citizens Outbound Travel - Caribbean 2019

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U.S. Citizens Outbound International Travel - Total 2019

	2019	2018	% change
Jan	6,517,532	6,028,263	8.1%
Feb	6,362,597	5,974,030	6.5%
Mar	8,409,355	7,942,143	5.9%
Apr	7,617,399	6,848,005	11.2%
May	8,544,891	7,901,888	8.1%
Jun	10,481,071	9,763,605	7.3%
Jul	10,782,814	9,930,123	8.6%
Aug	9,462,614	8,992,960	5.2%
YTD	68,178,273	63,381,017	7.6%

U.S. Citizens Outbound Travel - Caribbean Share 2019

	2019	2018	% pt change
Jan	11.4%	9.9%	1.5%
Feb	12.4%	11.3%	1.2%
Mar	12.0%	11.2%	0.8%
Apr	10.9%	10.6%	0.4%
May	9.8%	9.2%	0.6%
Jun	9.3%	9.2%	0.1%
Jul	9.0%	9.6%	-0.5%
Aug	8.0%	8.3%	-0.3%
YTD	10.1%	9.8%	0.3%

While the Caribbean saw good growth comparing the first eight months of 2019 with the same eight months of 2018 when compared with January – August 2016 it can be seen that while overall travel by U.S. citizens to international destinations grew by 24.6%, trips by U.S. citizens to the Caribbean grew by just 21.0% with the Caribbean’s share consequently falling from 10.4% in 2016 to 10.1% in 2019. Europe saw a big jump in share between 2016 and 2019, growing from 17.1% in 2016 to 19.2% in 2019.

U.S. Citizens Outbound International Travel:
January - August 2019

					% change
Number of Trips	2016	% share	2019	% share	2016-2019
Europe	9,339,126	17.1%	13,109,311	19.2%	40.4%
Caribbean	5,711,132	10.4%	6,911,474	10.1%	21.0%
Asia	3,494,900	6.4%	4,324,381	6.3%	23.7%
South America	1,383,150	2.5%	1,555,725	2.3%	12.5%
Central America	2,159,550	3.9%	2,446,628	3.6%	13.3%
Oceania	468,716	0.9%	633,703	0.9%	35.2%
Middle East	1,465,274	2.7%	1,694,046	2.5%	15.6%
Africa	251,038	0.5%	364,091	0.5%	45.0%
Mexico (Air)	6,271,931	11.5%	7,101,082	10.4%	13.2%
Mexico (Other)	14,310,724	26.2%	19,257,194	28.2%	34.6%
Canada	9,842,174	18.0%	10,780,637	15.8%	9.5%
Total	54,697,715	100.0%	68,178,272	100.0%	24.6%