U.S. domestic travel went up over the summer, but the trend is not expected to last. Compared to last year, the travel in August was up 4.4 percent, which was also picked up in comparison to earlier months in the year.
Roger Dow, the president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, releases a statement about the trend.
“Although travel has outperformed the economic recovery overall, our grip on prolonged growth has felt tenuous at times because of the dollar’s impressive run and a rogue’s gallery of other concerning factors. Between TSA’s early summer issues, Brexit, Zika, and a tumultuous U.S. election cycle, it’s been a year of news stories that don’t particularly create the yearning to travel, particularly among internationals. Here is evidence that travelers around the world have been able to look past the headlines to see the reality: the U.S. is open for business.”
Domestic travel is thought to slow down again and just grow by 1.4 percent through the beginning of next year.
According to David Huether, the association’s senior vice president for research:
“Travel is still expanding—but given the recent weakness in international inbound visitations, domestic leisure travel will be the key to growth going forward. While we hope that more international visitors will act on their increased interest in the U.S. as a destination, it will likely be on domestic leisure travelers to carry the travel economy through the end of 2016.”
