International visitors to the US dropping

International visitors numbers have been announced by the US Department of Commerce, and the trend is not so good.

Statistics show that 7.7 million international visitors traveled to the United States in July 2016, down two percent (-2.0%) from July 2015.

In July 2016, the top inbound markets continued to be Canada and Mexico. Non-resident visits from Canada were down seven percent (-6.7%) while visits from Mexico grew nine percent (8.5%). The United Kingdom (-9.7%), Japan (-10.2%) and the People’s Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong) (-33.0%) rounded out the top five. Five of the inbound overseas regional markets posted increases in non-resident visits in July 2016, with Western Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Oceania posting declines.

For the first seven months of 2016, international visits (42.8 million) were down two percent (-2.4%) when compared to the same period in 2015.

Top 10 Countries

In July 2016, three of the top 10 countries posted increases in non-resident visits. During the first seven months of 2016, four of the top 10 countries (sort based on July 2016) posted increases in non-resident visits to the United States.

Non-Resident Visits from Overseas Countries

In July 2016 non-resident visits from overseas countries (3.9 million) dropped four percent (-3.5%) over July 2015, accounting for 51 percent of total international visits to the United States. During the first seven months of 2016, non-resident visits from overseas countries (21.3 million) were down one percent (-0.6%) compared to the same period of 2015, accounting for 50 percent of total international visits.

Top Ports: Year to Date July 2016

Visitation through the top 15 ports of entry accounted for 85 percent of all overseas visits, over a half of one percentage point higher than last year. The top three ports (New York JFK, Miami, and Los Angeles) accounted for 41 percent of all overseas arrivals, slightly higher than last year. Nine of the top 15 ports posted single-digit increases in arrivals. One port, Agana, Guam, posted a double-digit increase.

Pleasure Travel vs. Business Travel: Year to Date July 2016

Of the top 20 overseas countries with visits to the United States, 90 percent or more of the visits recorded from Argentina (93.9%), Venezuela (90.1%), and Ecuador (94.4%) represented pleasure travel to the United States. on the contrary, 20 percent or more of the visits recorded from Germany (24.3%), Italy (20.9%), the Netherlands (23.7%), and Ireland (20.2%) represented business travel to the United States. Of all overseas non-resident visits to the United States, 81.8 percent represented pleasure travel and 14.6 percent represented business travel.

Preliminary July 2016 I-94 Arrivals Data

The preliminary July 2016 I-94 arrivals data show an anomaly in the Hong Kong and the People’s Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong) data. Hong Kong recorded a very large increase and the People’s Republic of China (excluding Hong Kong) recorded a very large decrease. There seems to be a high certainty of a coding problem. The objective is to report the monthly I-94 arrivals data in a consistent and accurate format to support the informational needs of the travel industry; revised data will be reported as it becomes available.