International travelers have a lot of countries to visit. So, where does the United States rank? Interestingly, the United States leads in tourism spending.
This builds on last week’s post: American Vacation Time Compared to Elsewhere.
United States Leads in Tourism Spending
While the U.S. leads in tourism spending, while both France and Spain attract more international visitors. But, wow, does the U.S. dominate tourist shopping.
According to Niall McCarthy, writing for Statista:
“Last year represented a good time for global tourism. The World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) published its 2018 report on international tourism trends. In fact, it found that 2017 experienced the highest growth in international tourist arrivals since 2010. That resulted from a combination of factors, such as these. Strong economic conditions. Higher demand in emerging markets. And the recovery of destinations suffering from security challenges. The total number of tourist arrivals last year was 1.32 billion. Up 7 percent on 2016. While tourism receipts went up 5 percent to $1.34 trillion.”
“In 2017, France was the world’s most-visited country with 86.9 million arrivals. Ahead of Spain’s 81.8 million and the USA’s 75.9 million. U.S. arrivals fell 3.8 percent. Despite the decline, however, spending still increased 1.9 percent to reach $210.7 billion, drastically higher than France and Spain combined.”
Indeed, tourism spending in the U.S. exceeded that of the next three countries combined. Look at the Statista infographic below.
