Today marks the start of the annual International Pow Wow sponsored
by the Travel Industry Association of America. It's the largest
gathering of overseas agents and tour operators that focus on the
U.S. as a prime destination. They'll spend the next few days
meeting in Dallas with U.S.-based suppliers and a lot of business
will get done.
Just to give you a sense of the size of the inbound travel
market to the U.S., last year 48 million visitors came here, a 3%
increase over 1998.
The biggest markets for inbound arrivals are our neighbors,
Canada and Mexico, but consider this: nearly 5 million Japanese
visited the U.S. last year and over 4 million came from the
U.K.
Other countries that generate substantial inbound visitors
include Germany, sending nearly 2 million; France, with more than a
million, and four countries that generate more than 500,000 --
Brazil, Italy, Venezuela and the Netherlands.
Travel to the U.S. from smaller countries is picking up steam.
Arrivals from Taiwan jumped 17% last year; Central America sent 5%
more visitors; the Middle East 6% more, including 5% more from
Israel; Africa sent 6% more, and Oceania (Australia and New
Zealand) sent 4% more.
Some of those increases came off smaller bases in 1998,
particularly in Asia, where the economy dipped sharply that year,
but the statistics still suggest that the markets from which the
U.S. is attracting significant visitors are expanding.
The Internet is playing a role in that expansion. Noel
Irwin-Hentschel of American Tours International in Los Angeles, is
using the Web to great effect, offering on-line group quotes and
offer some 3,000 via the Web to its European clients.
And where are the visitors going? Well Florida still is a huge
favorite. The British in particular never seem to get enough of the
state's sunny climes, maybe as a refuge from so many chilly days at
home.
California and the Grand Canyon remain huge favorites, as does
New York City.
Then there's Las Vegas. No matter where in the world people
live, they want to go to the Nevada gaming center. Vegas, like
other U.S. tourist meccas, also has stepped up its overseas
promotion, driving even more traffic into town.