U.S. travelers understand that it’s as important to give as it is to receive. Thus, it’s almost just that American travel to foreign destination was up 1 percent from October 2008 to October 2009 — exactly the same rate at which foreign travel to the United States grew. The outbound air market posted a decline of 4 percent year-over-year, though it’s up from 8 percent in June.
Spending by Americans traveling to other countries reached $2.07 billion in October, a decline of 26 percent from the year before. Overseas spending for the first 10 months of 2009 amounted to $21.3 billion, representing a drop of 21 percent from the same period the year before.
Travel to most markets was down significantly, with Canada off 8 percent for October and 9 percent for the year and Mexico down 6 percent for the month and 12 percent for the year. Asia and Europe were flat for the month and 6 percent and 4 percent for the year, respectively.
Markets showing improvement in October were the Caribbean (up 11 percent), Oceania (up 12 percent), Africa (up 2 percent) and the Middle East (up 40 percent).