International inbound travel
has been on the decline for the past three months, according to the U.S. Travel Association’s Travel
Trends Index, and the trend is likely to continue this year.
U.S. Travel attributed the decline to the
strength of the U.S. dollar, which is particularly weighing on travel from
Canada.
The latest index does not include data following Britain’s vote to leave the European
Union. That data will begin to appear in August’s index, which includes data
from June.
“It will be
interesting to see how global events, such as Britain’s recent vote to leave
the European Union, affect these trends in the months ahead,” said David Huether,
U.S. Travel's vice president for research.
Despite a decline in international travel and a decline in domestic business travel, U.S. Travel's Current Travel Index showed growth for May 2016 because of the strength of the domestic leisure market.
In fact, the Current Travel Index has shown growth for the past 77 months, as the industry continues a 6-year expansion that is expected to continue through the end of the year.