The United States National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) announced travel and tourism figures for December 2022 and for the calendar year 2022.
The total non-U.S. resident international visitor volume to the United States of 5,015,338, increased +46.2% compared to December 2021 and represented 72.9% of the pre-COVID total visitor volume reported for December 2019, down from November’s 75.5%.
In 2022, the total international visitor arrivals totaled 50,869,685, an increase of 128.3% from 2021, but was 64% of the total international visitor arrivals in 2019.
December 2022
In December 2022, the overseas visitor volume to the United States of 2,481,680 increased +46.0% from December 2021. December 2022 was the twenty-first consecutive month that total non-U.S. resident international arrivals to the United States increased on a year-over-year (YOY) basis.
Of the top 20 tourist generating countries to the United States, Colombia (with 99,472 visitors), and Costa Rica (with 34,559) were the only countries that reported a decrease in visitor volume in December 2022 compared to December 2021, with a -23.3%, and a -11.8% change respectively.
The largest number of international visitor arrivals was from Canada (1,370,912), Mexico (1,162,746), the United Kingdom (315,610), Brazil (150,616) and France (121,284). Combined, these top five source markets accounted for 62.2% of total international arrivals.
The year 2022
All world regions reported an increase in visitor volume to the United States from 2021, the largest source region being Western Europe with 10,341,306 visitors (+509.2% YOY). Oceania, with 798,444 visitors, had the largest percentage increase of 1084.7% YOY.
The world region that reported the smallest percentage increase in 2022 was Central America with 1,191,561 arrivals representing an increase of just +0.9% YOY.
New York reported the largest volume of visitor arrivals as a port of entry for 2022 (4,450,767). Miami was second (3,815,420), followed by Los Angeles (2,071,421).
International Departures from the United States
U.S. citizen international visitor departures from the United States totaled:
- 8,318,147 in December 2022, an increase of 38.5% compared to December 2021 with total departures reaching 93.8% of pre-pandemic December 2019 volume.
- 80,729,714 in 2022, an increase of 65.7% compared to 2021, with total departures still 18.7% below pre-pandemic 2019 volume.
December 2022 was the twenty-first consecutive month that total U.S. citizen international visitor departures from the United States increased on a YOY basis.
Mexico recorded the largest outbound visitor volume for both December and 2022.
- In December outbound visitor volume to Mexico was 3,697,009 (44.4% of total departures in December).
- In 2022 outbound visitor volume to Mexico was 33,539,995 (41.5% of total departures in 2022).
Canada recorded a YOY increase of 95.0% in December 2022.
- Outbound volume to Canada reached 9,088,472 in 2022, up 334.1% since 2021, yet was still only 60.6% of pre-pandemic December 2019 volume.
Combined, Mexico (33,539,995) and the Caribbean (9,207,788) accounted for 53.0% of total U.S. citizen international visitor departures in 2022, up 0.3 percentage points from November 2022 YTD and down 18.5 percentage points from 2021.
Europe was the second largest market for outbound U.S. visitors for both December 2022 and 2022.
- December U.S. outbound visitor volume to Europe was up 95.0% compared to December 2021.
- Outbound volume to Europe reached 15,821,521 in 2022. During this time, U.S. visitor volume to Europe increased 202% and accounted for 19.6% of all departures.
In 2022, there were notable shifts in market share compared to 2021.
- Overseas regions increased to 47.2% of total travel from 37.4% (up 9.8 percentage points) in 2021.
- Mexico decreased to 41.5% of total travel from 58.3% (down 16.8 percentage points) in 2021.
- Canada increased to 11.3% of total travel from 4.3% (up 7.0 percentage points) in 2021.
