Travel to the U.S. continues to grow, but international arrivals are flat.
According to the U.S. Travel Association's latest Travel Trends Index (TTI), travel to and in the U.S. grew 3 percent year over year in August. This was the 116th straight month of growth.
The domestic leisure travel segment is a bright spot and is buoying overall growth, expanding by 4 percent. However, forward-looking bookings and search data indicate uncertainty in this segment. Forecasts indicate a slowdown with growth softening to just 1.8 percent in the coming months.
Domestic travel grew by grew 3.4 percent, which is down due to a weakening in the domestic business travel segment which grew by just 1.2 percent. Business travel, unlike domestic leisure travel, is expected to pick up and expand by 1.6 percent in the next six months.
"While the travel engine is not firing on all cylinders, the overall pace of travel through the first eight months of this year is solid," said David Huether., the U.S. Travel senior vice president of research.
International inbound travel was flat in August, which is an improvement from July's 1.2 percent decline. The numbers were disappointing as many were hoping for a rebound of inbound travel. The Leading Travel Index, which forecasts growth, projects the segment will decline 0.6 percent due to ongoing trade tensions and the strength of the dollar.
U.S. Travel notes that the long-term reauthorization of the Brand USA destination marketing organization, an expansion of the Visa Waiver program and improvements to wait times for travelers clearing customs could mitigate some of these issues.
"Brand USA has kept the U.S. competitive in the global travel market and prevented the decline in our country's share of global travel from being worse," Huether noted. "It is crucial that Congress works quickly to reauthorize Brand USA this year to ensure the future of the United States' travel promotion and planning."
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