India has overtaken Australia as a source country for tourists to the United States, pushing Australia out of the top 10 visitor origin countries to the USA for the first time in living memory.
The trend was revealed in information issued yesterday by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) in the US Department of Commerce. The NTTO released an update to its Forecast for International Travel to the United States, with data from the top 21 visitor origin countries.
Forecasts see tourism to the US from India surging by 10% this year to reach 1,414,000 visitors by year-end. In comparison, tourism to the US from Australia is forecast to climb just 3% to reach 1,363,000 visitors by the end of this year.
Australia is still in the top 10 overseas visitor sources, a definition which excludes Canada and Mexico. It is now ninth in the league.
According to latest data, the top 10 overseas visitor sources to the USA this year are (in descending order):
- UK
- Japan
- China
- South Korea
- Germany
- Brazil
- France
- India
- Australia
- Italy
The forecasts run through to 2023, with Australia predicted to achieve moderate growth throughout the period from now till then, to end up with a compound annual growth rate of 3.3%. India is tipped to achieve a compound annual growth rate of 6.5% over the same period and China should see 4.5%. Both those countries are about 50 times more populous than Australia.
New York by night
By 2023, the line-up of visitation source countries to the US is forecast to show some changes. China will have overtaken Japan to take second place and Argentina will have ousted Italy. The list will then be (according to the forecast):
- UK
- China
- Japan
- South Korea
- Germany
- Brazil
- France
- India
- Australia
- Argentina
Written by Peter Needham
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