Outbound tourism from China, the world’s leading outbound market, continues to break records. Chinese tourists spent 12% more in 2016 than the year earlier, maintaining the trend of double-digit growth in tourism expenditure every year since 2004, according to preliminary data by the United Nations World Tourism Organization. China’s international tourism spending grew by $11 […]
Tourism
Mexicans flock to Canada while US visits decline
Mexicans are forsaking visits to the United States, many in favor of Canada where their money goes further and visa requirements have been scrapped, according to the latest data from industry booking analyst ForwardKeys. While US President Trump has talked about building a wall on the Mexican border, Canada’s new policy of visa-free travel […]
Canadian tourism arrivals hit 14-year high in 2016
Canada welcomed 19,979,334 travelers in 2016—the highest number since 2002 and second highest ever. International arrivals increased by 16% in Destination Canada’s 10 overseas markets, and 10% in the US market, for an average of 11% growth across the board. “I’m excited to say that 2016 was a fantastic year for our tourism industry,” said […]
Caribbean tourism records 7th consecutive year of record growth with 29.3 million arrivals
Announcing that 2017 is the Year of Adventure for the CTO, the Caribbean Tourism Organization revealed that Caribbean tourism surpassed 29 million arrivals for the first time, with its record-breaking performance once again growing faster than the global average. The Caribbean continues to break new ground, said Hugh Riley, CTO Secretary General, during the annual […]
Travel to the US suffers 6.5% Trump slump
President Donald Trump’s ban on nationals from seven mainly Muslim countries entering the US appears to be deterring travelers from other countries around the world too, according to data from ForwardKeys. The travel intelligence analyst monitors travel patterns by analyzing 16 million flight reservation transactions a day. The findings show that after President Trump’s initial […]
US international visitation breaks growth streak
The five-month growth streak of increases in international visitor arrivals to the United States was broken in February, when 4.9 million international visitors were recorded, down by -0.3% from February 2015, according to the US Department of Commerce This follows the moderated growth reported in January. For the first two months of 2016, international visits (10.4 million) […]
IATA: Strong traffic growth continues in May
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) global passenger traffic results for May show strong demand growth compared to May 2014 for both domestic and international traffic. Total revenue passenger kilometers (RPKs) rose 6.9%, an improvement on the year-over-year increase in April of 5.7%. Capacity in May increased by 6.5%, and load factor rose 0.3 percentage […]
Canada officially launches Connecting America initiative to attract more American visitors
Canada’s Frontier Duty Free Association has passed on news that the Canadian Tourism Ministry announced a $30 million three-year program entitled “Connecting America” – which is a TIAC/CTC initiative to attract more U.S. citizens to Canada. The FDFA supports this initiative and is very pleased with the Government’s announcement. The CTC is Canada’s national tourism […]
FDFA’s Road TRIP program passed over in current budget
Despite a valiant effort from the Frontier Duty Free Association (FDFA), Canada’s 2015 Federal budget released on April 21 did not include a provision for a three-year pilot program called Road TRIP (Travel Rebate Incentive Program). The program was developed by the FDFA to help incentivize US tourism visits and related spending in Canada by […]
Will 2015 be the year Americans are finally free to visit Cuba?
By Larry Luxner Daily flights from Atlanta to Varadero. Overnight Miami-Havana ferry service. A Starbucks outlet at José Martí International Airport, and a Habanos duty free cigar shop at JFK. It sounds too good to be true. Yet within a few years, could all these things be ubiquitious, given President Obama’s ambitious plans to resume […]
Baha Mar opening doors to new era of luxury in The Bahamas this month
In an undertaking that has taken five years of planning and massive construction, Baha Mar, the largest single-phase luxury resort project in the history of the Caribbean, and the largest tourism project under construction in the Western Hemisphere, will begin accepting guests on March 27, 2015. The $3.5 billion Baha Mar resort in Nassau is […]
CTO encouraged by record arrivals and tourism spend in Caribbean
Caribbean tourism officials said they were “encouraged” by the record tourism numbers achieved by the Caribbean in 2014, but cautioned that the region still has a ways to go to maintain and grow its market share. The comments were made by Hugh Riley, secretary general of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, during the question and answer […]
