Were it not for Poland’s new-found flush position as a new-found, growing European source market for visitors, last year, 2019, all of the Top 50 international source markets—except for neighboring Canada and Mexico—registered declines in their number of arrivals to the United States for the First Quarter of 2020.
What accounted for the Q1 success of Poland? The answer: Last Nov. 11th, it became the latest (No. 39) nation to be a part of the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which means that Polish citizens and nationals are now able to travel to the United States for up to 90 days without obtaining a U.S. visa. By the thousands, travelers from Poland came to the USA as 2019 ended and 2020 began. It is doubtful that Poland can sustain the pace, given the restrictions on travel and near zero percent in flights to and from America these days. However, the country has already improved its rank as a country source market—it improved from No. 39 to No. 27 during the first quarter.
Otherwise, there aren’t any real surprises in the latest quarterly posts of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Nation Travel & Tourism Office (NTTO). Figures for Canada and Mexico—they come from sources other than NTTO—were not yet available.
The Top 50, then, follow:
