Everyone wants to go to the U.S.: posts highest scores in brand survey

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Step aside, Australia: travelers now prefer the United States. A report by consulting firm FutureBrand shows that the United States’ Country Brand Index topped Australia, which usually has the top spot. The survey collects the thoughts of around 3,000 international business and recreational travelers, measuring how various countries are perceived. The report credits President Obama with driving the increase, since a decent dose of anti-American sentiment around the world put some pressure on the countries performance in the rankings.

The United States ranks best as “ideal for business,” but it lags in many of the 29 other categories. Japan and the United Kingdom score higher for nightlife, and Singapore beats the United States as a shopping destination.

Even with the high score, the Department of Commerce expects visits from abroad to fall 8 percent this year, thanks to an awful global economy.

Interested in seeing the whole top 10 list? Check for it after the jump.

1. United States

2. Canada (hosting the Winter Olympics next year)

3. Australia

4. New Zealand

5. France

6. Italy

7. Japan

8. United Kingdom

9. Germany

10. Spain

[Photo by Diacritical via Flickr]

Travel from the rest of the world to the U.S. falls … again

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Travel fell again in 2009, according to U.S. Department of Commerce data, as a weak economy put pressure on both personal and corporate travel budgets.

Only 3.6 million people arrived from other countries, marking a decline of 11 percent from June 2008 to June 2009. For the six months of the year, international arrivals were off 10 percent year-over-year. The spending situation was even worse. Guests to the United States fell 22 percent from June 2008 to June 2009, the eight month in a row in which this measure dropped. For the first half of the year, foreign visitors spent $60 billion – a 15 percent decline.

Travel from Canada took a hit in June, down 13 percent in June. Land arrivals fell 15 percent, with 11 percent fewer coming by air. For the first half of the year, Canadian visits were off 9 percent. The situation with Mexico was more favorable. Land arrivals jumped 5 percent, with air travel down 15 percent. Overall, travel from Mexico to the United States showed a modest decline of 1 percent for the month of June. For the year, however, visits from Mexico plunged 13 percent year-over-year.

Excluding Canada and Mexico, foreign visits fell for 16 of the top 20 countries in June – nine at double-digit rates. For the first two quarters of 2009, the results for the top 20 are the same, though only eight countries posted double-digit drops. Travel from Europe fell 11 percent for the first half of the year, with the United Kingdom posting a worse-than-average rate of 17 percent. This country accounts for 36 percent of all Western European arrivals, and Western Europe is responsible for close to half of all overseas visitors to the United States. Visits from Eastern Europe were up 3 percent from June 2008 to June 2009 and 1 percent for the first half of the year.

Asia, however, sustained the greatest drops. From June 2008 to June 2009, visitation from Asia fell 28 percent – driving the first-half results down 17 percent. Visits from Japan plunged 39 percent from June to June and 18 percent for the first half of the year. Japan sent 51 percent of Asian visitors to the United States in the first half of the year. Travel from South Korea and India fell 17 percent and 14 percent, respectively, with China down 4 percent for the first half of the year.

The feds want to know how to make international travel better

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Here’s your chance to gripe! The U.S. Office of Travel and Tourism Industries is looking for your thoughts … on how a questionnaire is structured. So, rather than weigh in on the issues facing the industry, you can set the framework for how you’ll respond later. Yeah, it seems like a bit of bureaucratic overhead, but let’s face it: this is the language of government. And, you have the opportunity to shape the lexicon.

The questionnaire will be open to U.S. and non-U.S. residents to provide some insights on how to make international travel to and from the United States easier. You have to provide your recommendations by 5 PM on October 1, 2009, and then begin to hold your breath. The changes are expected to be put to use in January 2011!

So far, it’s pretty bland, so we’re relying on you to spice it up a bit.

AT&T works on travel transparency

by Annie Scott on

Have AT&T? Going somewhere out of the continental United States? Click here to find out exactly what it’ll cost you.

Phone companies have a filthy habit of not being terribly transparent with their mobile plans or landlines, i.e. you have all these fees and taxes you don’t expect on your bill, you aren’t sure what roaming costs and whether you’re doing it, and you never seem to know what you’re going to be charged for calling a random foreign country — or calling from a random foreign country.

I don’t have AT&T and sometimes I send text messages to Norway, and I swear it’s cost me something different every time. It bet costs my friend nothing to text back — it’s probably included in her insurance (darn Norwegians have it so good). (I’m just kidding.)

In any case, AT&T has taken some guesswork out of travel fees. You can visit their site and build yourself a whole itinerary of countries in which you’ll be using one of their phones and specify which phone, or even select the phone you are considering getting and the countries you’re going to. The site will immediately tell you whether or not they have coverage in that country for voice and/or data — they have voice coverage in over 215 countries and data in over 170, which is more than anybody else. They also have voice and data on over 130 cruise ships and 3G in 80 countries.

So, they tell you whether or not voice and data are available, and then you can click a little “details” button and they’ll tell you how much it’s gonna cost to communicate there. Straight up. That’s darn near enough to make me pay the $200 to get out of my current contract. You can also pay AT&T $5.99 per month for their World Traveler plan, which provides discounts on all those little premiums. If you travel a lot, that’ll save you bank.

Here are some additional tips for saving money when traveling abroad no matter who your carrier is:

  • Turn off your data roaming.
  • Use WiFi instead of 3G, GPRS, or EDGE when possible
  • Turn off the auto-check e-mail function
  • Reset your usage tracker to 0 when you get there so you’ll know what you’re spending
  • Don’t go downloading photos and watching YouTube, fool — it’s gonna cost you!

They’ve got international data plans if you need your YouTube fix. Seriously, AT&T wants you to travel. So: www.att.com/travelguide. It’s totally worth your while — and that’s a hint to step it up, other mobile service providers!

Recession impact evident in January, foreign visits to U.S. down

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Foreign visits to the United States are down 9 percent year-over-year for January 2009, according to an announcement by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Spending by this group of visitors reached $10.6 billion – down 7 percent from January 2008. So, it looks like the people who spend less aren’t coming, since cash isn’t falling as fast as visitation. Slightly more than 3 million people visited the United States from abroad this year.

This confirms the worldwide effect of what was once called a “subprime mortgage crisis.” The global recession has led to a decline in consume rspending that includes travel.

Half the traffic came from our neighbors. Canada sent 1.1 million visitors to the United States, but this is down more than 12 percent year-over-year. Land arrivals fell 16 percent, with air arrivals dropping by only 8 percent. Mexico had 405,000 visitors to the United States in January. This is a decline of 4 percent. Air arrivals fell 16 percent, with land arrivals actually up 2 percent.

Excluding Canada and Mexico, U.S. arrivals totaled 1.5 million, a fall of 8 percent. Four of the top 20 countries (by number of travelers sent to the United States) showed increases, and two of them had double-digit year-over-year growth.

Brazil: up 5 percent (and showing 32 months of consecutive increases)

China: up 37 percent (and showing 35 months of consecutive increases)

Italy: up 6 percent (showing 25 months of consecutive increases)

Argentina: up 19 percent (and showing 30 months of consecutive increases)

U.S. visitation from the 27 countries in the European Union fell 11 percent overall for January 2009 (relative to January 2008), and travel from Western Europe was down 12 percent. Western Europe accounts for 37 percent of all overseas arrivals to the United States. Travel from Eastern Europe to the United States was up 5 percent. Travel from Asia to the United States, on the other hand, fell 9 percent year-over-year but nonetheless accounted for 31 percent of overseas arrivals to the United States. Travel from Japan fell 13 percent, with South Korea down 17 percent. Visits from India plunged 12 percent year-over-year.

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