The smiles say it all. Canada’s not all the way back, but U.S. tourism reps at this year’s IPW conference in Los Angeles are pleased with how Canadians are returning to key states south of the border. Visit California statistics show Canada last year eclipsed pre-pandemic visitation levels, rising from 1.732 million visits in 2019 to 1.799 last year. Canadian visits to Florida last year were at 93% of pre-pandemic levels. Orlando says it attracted 1.256 million Canadians last year, a new, single-year record. For New York City, visitors from Canada were achingly close to 2019 numbers (995,000, compared to Read more
U.S. Travel Association
The U.S. Travel Association has released a study that found the United States ranks 17th out of 18 top travel markets in terms of global competitiveness. Decades of underinvestment and a lack of focus and coordination from federal policymakers caused the U.S. to fall behind, while other countries actively apply robust strategies to increase travel and grow economic output, the study suggests. The study gave the U.S. a 47% score, placing 17th out of 18 countries. Only China was worse. Canada ranked fifth in the report with 59%. Finishing on top of the list was the UK (72%), followed by France, Read more
SAN ANTONIO – Fort Myers is recovering nicely from Hurricane Ian. California is bursting with visitors. Washington D.C. wants more international travellers. And Philadelphia says like us or get out of town. Nearly a dozen U.S. destinations took to the stage at this year’s U.S. Travel Association/IPW convention in San Antonio to trumpet everything from world class cuisine to mosquito-chomping bats. There was also an actual trumpet player and a wonderfully talented poet laureate from Orlando. Here are some of the highlights from IPW press conferences this week, including some Canadian visitation information. FORT MYERS AND BEACHES Miriam Dotson, communications Read more
Reuters reports that the U.S. Travel Association is urging President Joe Biden “to lift COVID-19 travel restrictions and repeal a mandate requiring masks on airplanes and in other transit modes by April 18.” The news outlet says it has seen a letter from the group to Dr. Ashish Jha, the incoming White House COVID response coordinator, that calls for an immediate end to the pre-departure testing requirement for all fully vaccinated inbound international persons and ending the mask mandate by April 18 “or announcing a plan and timeline to repeal the federal mask mandate within the subsequent 90 days.” “It Read more
Days after the U.S. reopened its land and air borders to vaccinated international visitors, including Canadians coming over the land border, the U.S. Travel Association released a study that shows that domestic leisure travel has returned to near pre-pandemic levels. But they’re forecasting an uneven recovery for the international inbound and business travel segments. The forecast, based on analysis from Tourism Economics, projects that domestic leisure travel will continue to drive the U.S. travel industry’s recovery in the near term. This segment is projected to surpass pre-pandemic levels in 2022 and beyond. U.S. domestic business travel spending is expected to reach Read more
