Growth in U.S. domestic travel is leveling off after displaying months of robust growth, according to a survey by the U.S. Travel Association.
In addition, U.S. Travel said that the international market will not expand any further in the next six months.
The organization found that although overall travel to and within the U.S. grew 1.6% year over year in September, its Travel Trends Index (TTI) found that domestic travel rates decelerated to a 1.8% increase, with business travel appearing to have plateaued and leisure travel accounting for the small growth.
International travel was up 4.4% in September year over year, but U.S. Travel said that since inbound had dropped 2.2% in September 2017, the year-over-year improvement "is liable to appear overinflated."
"We're seeing something of a perfect storm of factors that could suppress international demand for travel to the U.S.," said David Huether, U.S. Travel senior vice president for research. "The U.S. dollar has been on another very robust strengthening trend since April of this year, while the global economy has been cooling off considerably overall. That, coupled with political uncertainty in Europe and rising trade tensions, is a bad-news recipe for inbound travel."