by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 5:05 PM ET, Wed May 1, 2024
International arrivals to the United States took a substantial leap forward between 2022 and 2023 and the country is just one year shy of recovering from the visitation slump brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.
New data from the National Trade and Tourism Office (NTTO) shows that 66.5 million international visitors came to the United States in 2023, which is 15.7 million more than one year earlier. That translates to a 31 percent year-over-year increase.
Compared to the heyday of pre-pandemic travel in 2019, the 2023 figure represents an 84 percent recovery for the U.S. In 2019, there were 79.4 million international visitors.
Based on the current annual recovery rates, NTTO expects that the U.S. will surpass pre-pandemic levels of arrivals next year. The agency projects international visitation levels will reach 85.2 million in 2025.
Most Popular U.S. Destinations
Today’s data release also provides a revealing look at where in the U.S. the largest numbers of international visitors are headed.
Topping the list is New York state, which attracted the most overseas travelers in 2023. The state moved up one notch in the rankings from 2022.
New York City meanwhile, was the most-visited city in 2023 among international travelers, followed by Miami, Florida and Los Angeles, California.
There are also a handful of states in the U.S. that have already surpassed 2019 figures in terms of attracting international visitors. The states where visitation has fully recovered from the pandemic include:
- Puerto Rico (up 85%)
- Tennessee (up 15%)
- Texas (up 7%)
- Georgia (up 5%)
Top Source Markets
The lion’s share of visitors to this country are arriving from Canada and Mexico. The 2023 arrivals for those two source markets are 20.5 million and 14.5 million respectively.
Additional important source markets for international visitors to the U.S. in 2023 were:
- United Kingdom: 3.8 million visitors
- Germany: 1.8 million visitors
- India: 1.7 million visitors
- Brazil: 1.6 million visitors
- South Korea: 1.6 million visitors
And one final note, visitors from India to the United States have
already surpassed 2019 levels - reaching 119.6 percent of pre-pandemic
levels in 2023.
Separately, between 2022 and 2023, the number of
visitors to this country from China increased the most of any country,
ticking upward 192 percent. This was followed by visitors from Japan,
for which figures were up 154.2 percent between 2022 and 2023.
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