Giving an up-to-date statistical portrait to the changing profile of the USA’s international visitors to delegates at NAJ’s recent RTO Summit West in Marina del Rey, Calif., Erin Cummings, president and CEO of the San Francisco-based tourism research and marketing company, Destination Analysts, explained that visitors to the U.S. from China, the soon-to-be top overseas source market for the USA, also intend to spend more than any other traveling population has ever spent.
The note on China was just one of a number of data points presented by Cummings; the numbers came from her company’s recent work, The State of the International Traveler Study, whose results were drawn from an online survey of a random, representative sample of likely international travelers in a dozen countries contributing the highest visitor volume to the USA: Canada, Mexico, the UK, Japan, Germany, Brazil, China, India, S. Korea, Australia, France, Italy and Russia. (All the national surveys were conducted in the native language of each country.)
Destination Analysts tables showing the percentage of those showing the intent to travel in the next year, as well as those who expect to spend more show the following:
Perhaps the most reassuring of the data sets presented by Cummings was that which shows the popularity of the U.S. as a travel destination; i.e., the respondents in a solid majority of top international markets pick the United States as the destination they would most like to visit.
At least as encouraging to those who already market to, or plan to market to, the key countries of Brazil, China and India are the numbers showing that about two-thirds of those surveyed in each of the three markets are “very likely” to visit or “will certainly visit” the U.S. in the next two years.
And when it comes to the experiences important to the traveler from the select dozen countries, more than two-thirds consider visits to famous and iconic American landmarks and attractions, as well as sightseeing in U.S. cities “important” or “very important.”
Finally, show that the group tour is still a staple among travelers, especially among the growth markets of Brazil, China and India.
Here is contact information for those who wish to know more about Destination: @DA_Research, @ErinCummings, DestinationAnalysts.com
