NEW YORK: The U.S. Department of Commerce, National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), has updated its website to provide the new restructured and revised travel and tourism export and import estimates for 1999-2013 as issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA).
The impact of these revisions now means that international travel exports for the U.S. totaled $214.8 billion in 2013, up 7% over 2012. For total travel and tourism imports, the new estimates show $136.7 billion spent by U.S. residents traveling abroad in 2013, up 5% over 2012. This results in a new record travel surplus of $78.1 billion.
The estimates now available provide more detail than was previously possible. The new data is the result of BEA’s work that started in 2009 when the International Monetary Fund (IMF) released the sixth edition of the Balance of Payments and International Investment Position Manual (BPM6), which included a definitional change for ‘travel’ and the trade of travel-related goods and services. This is the most extensive restructuring since 1976, and was implemented in an effort to bring the U.S.’s international accounts into closer conformity with international guidelines and make them more comparable to other country’s estimates. The revisions affect all travel and tourism export and import estimates for 1999-2013 and into the future. BEA released top line information in June 2014, and the regional and country details in late October 2014. Estimates are provided for 34 countries and selected world regions.
Spending by U.S. travelers going abroad and non-resident visitors to the United States for education, medical, and as temporary workers have been added to the “travel” export and import estimates. Additionally, there are now breakouts for business and personal travel exports and imports.
On the travel export side, of the $214.8 billion, $173.1 billion was for travel purposes and $41.6 billion was for passenger fares, now called transport – air passengers. There are additional breakdowns for the travel spending but monthly and annual data breakouts are slightly different. On an annual basis for 2013, personal travel exports totaled $133.7 billion, up 10% over 2012. Under personal spending, the “other” category is the largest at $103.2 billion, up 10%, educational travel exports were $27.2 billion, up 10%, and health-related exports totaled $3.3 billion, up 4%. Business travel exports were $39.4 billion, with almost no change from 2012. Temporary workers accounted for $7 billion of this category, and the remaining export spending was list as “other” which includes all other reasons for travel.
New 10-year timelines for travel exports are available on the NTTO website for 2004-2013. With the greater detail provided on services exports for the United States, total travel and tourism exports – the sum of travel and transport air passenger exports is by far the largest service export for the United States. Travel is now 31% of all services exports and 9% of all goods and services exports. With the revisions, travel exports are larger than our agricultural, automotive and consumer goods exports.
The combined personal and business travel category generated $135.6 billion in total travel and tourism exports in 2013, up 7%. The top countries in rank order for this subset were: Canada, Japan, China, the United Kingdom, and Brazil. China posted the fastest growth among the top 5, up 14%.
Education travel exports totaled $27.2 billion in 2013, up 10%. The top countries for educational travel exports in rank order in 2013 were: China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Canada.
Country level travel exports data are available for 34 countries, as well as limited world region estimates. On the export side, total travel and tourism exports, the sum of travel and transport air passenger exports, show that Canada ($27.9 billion, up 5% over 2012) remains the top travel export market for the United States. With the addition of education, medical and temporary worker spending to the estimates, there were changes among the remaining countries. China moved to the number two spot at $21.1 billion, up 16% over 2012. Mexico is now third, generating $18.1 billion, up 5%. Mexico accounts for the largest share of the temporary worker spending. Japan is now ranked fourth at $17.6 billion, up 3%. The United Kingdom rounds out the top five for travel exports at $13.2 billion, but was down 1% compared to 2012. The top 10 travel exports can be seen in three reports that have been revised for 2013. To see the top 10 markets and the impact of international travel to the U.S. for 2013, you are encouraged to view the following three reports