Latin America’s Popularity Declines: U.S. Outbound Tourism Snapshot for November 2016

Some 2.3 million U.S. citizens traveled abroad in November, reflecting no change from the number of U.S. overseas trips in November 2015, according to monthly statistics released this week by the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office.

This brings U.S. citizen overseas travel to 31.8 million in the first 11 months of 2016, up six percent year-to-date (this excludes travel to Mexico and Canada).

Every month, the National Travel and Tourism Office 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 44 percent of U.S. outbound international travel while 56 percent went no farther than Canada or Mexico.

Europe and the Caribbean remained the most popular destinations throughout November, capturing 27 percent of all overseas travel. U.S. arrivals to Caribbean destinations, however, were down four percent and Central and South America’s arrivals were down 11 and 13 percent, respectively.

The greatest growth among overseas markets year-over-year was in Oceania, up eight percent with about 62,000 travelers in November. Europe attracted the highest number of U.S. travelers — 751,000 — for a six percent increase while Asia had the second highest number (436,000), up four percent year-over-year.

U.S. travel to border nations of Mexico and Canada increased six percent compared to November 2015. U.S. arrivals to Mexico increased about five percent to 2.6 million travelers and air arrivals were up two percent.

American visits to Canada increased 14 percent to 712,000 travelers in November with air arrivals up 20 percent. With a favorable exchange rate for U.S. travelers, Canadian destinations will likely appear increasingly attractive to Americans in 2017.

Last month, The New York Times named Canada the number one place to go in 2017 and Montreal’s tourism board launched a William Shatner-led campaign in January aimed at travelers from the northeast U.S., for example.

Including Mexico and Canada, 5.6 million U.S. travelers took international trips in November for about 72 million outbound trips year-to-date.

The full statistics can be found below:

Number of U.S. Travelers Visiting International Destinations in November 2016

November 2016 Market Share By Destination for Outbound U.S. Travelers

Source: U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office