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American outbound travel shifts from primarily leisure trips to business trips in the fall, likely leading to the increase in overseas travel in comparison to earlier months.

Some 2.1 million U.S. citizens traveled abroad in November 2014, up four percent over November 2013, according to monthly statistics released this week by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office.

This brings U.S. citizen international travel to 62 million in the first ten months of the year, up six percent for the year.

Every month, the NTTO releases data regarding recent travel activity, including details about outbound travel from the United States. This is the most recent month for which this information is available.

Through November, travel to overseas locations accounted for 45 percent of U.S. outbound international travel while a slightly higher percentage, 55 percent, went no farther than Canada or Mexico.

Europe and the Caribbean remain the most popular destinations throughout September capturing a total 29 percent of all travel.

The greatest growth among overseas markets year-over-year was seen in the Middle East, up 16 percent, to 144,000 travelers in November, and the Caribbean, up 7 percent to 514,000 travelers that month.

U.S. travel to border nations of Mexico and Canada increased 20 percent compared to November 2013 with the most growth seen in Mexico. American visits to Mexico increased 28 percent to 2.2 million travelers while visits to Canada decreased three precent to 595,000 travelers.

The full statistics can be found below:

Regions Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Total YTD “% Change YTD (1)” “YTD Market Share” Europe 577,691 497,003 806,663 868,367 1,305,842 1,614,486 1,413,798 1,185,907 1,241,537 915,090 675,275 11,101,659 4.5% 17.9%
Caribbean 498,620 550,203 705,211 629,774 624,280 742,860 821,650 629,224 347,244 436,791 513,983 6,499,840 9.6% 10.5%
Asia 376,296 312,814 397,296 381,817 379,197 424,155 397,960 342,239 338,630 397,721 364,160 4,112,285 4.2% 6.6%
South America 127,749 137,612 154,680 123,068 144,464 208,023 167,627 143,609 112,581 123,729 134,019 1,577,161 2.1% 2.5%
Central America 219,192 225,540 283,108 213,929 209,012 301,095 308,557 206,176 121,158 145,848 180,485 2,414,100 8.6% 3.9%
Oceania 51,774 62,658 60,097 41,314 46,359 45,003 48,892 39,913 38,013 46,573 53,030 533,626 5.3% 0.9%
Middle East 140,179 119,192 140,706 141,744 162,244 180,874 148,098 145,620 133,173 134,341 143,546 1,589,717 11.1% 2.6%
Africa 23,982 21,066 27,950 27,596 36,044 40,542 40,732 34,231 29,205 25,974 21,875 329,197 1.4% 0.5%
Total Overseas 2,015,483 1,926,088 2,575,711 2,427,609 2,907,442 3,557,038 3,347,314 2,726,919 2,361,541 2,226,067 2,086,373 28,157,585 6.2% 45.4%
Mexico 1,962,616 1,932,875 2,260,427 2,036,762 1,960,747 2,183,275 2,325,094 2,149,457 1,613,564 1,892,281 2,248,573 22,565,669 20.5% 36.4%
Canada 476,583 509,976 585,887 713,435 1,070,319 1,509,984 1,902,171 1,940,471 1,121,073 904,533 595,486 11,329,918 0.6% 18.3%
North America 2,439,199 2,442,851 2,846,314 2,750,197 3,031,066 3,693,259 4,227,265 4,089,928 2,734,637 2,796,814 2,844,059 33,895,587 13.1% 54.6%
Grand Total 4,454,682 4,368,939 5,422,025 5,177,806 5,938,508 7,250,297 7,574,579 6,816,847 5,096,178 5,022,881 4,930,432 62,053,172 9.8% 100%
Monthly Change (%) 7.6% 9.3% 6.7% 16.7% 14.5% 10.4% 10.5% 6.3% 7.3% 12.4% 12.3%
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Tags: skiftstats, usa

Photo credit: Passengers walk through Hamad International Airport in Doha, Qatar. Samantha Shankman / Skift

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