Industry Analysis

Industry Analysis

The Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI) manages the Travel and Tourism Statistical System for the United States. The System provides national and local level data that tracks past performance, provides insights into the future, and offers key traveler characteristics data to guide research-based marketing campaigns. Specific programs of the system are:

• Travel and Tourism Satellite Accounts, an economic tool that accurately measures the impact of the travel and tourism industries on the U.S. economy, providing industry comparability and job generation based on the government’s national system of accounts;
• International arrivals database from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that measures overseas travelers to the United States (excluding Canada and Mexico) by country, port, type of visa, and mode of transport;
• International air traffic database from DHS that provides the only estimates of U.S. outbound travel as well as data on the U.S. flag and foreign flag air traffic to and from the United States by port and country;
• Survey of International Air Travelers (In-Flight Survey), a primary research program that collects more than 30 key traveler characteristics on international travelers to and from the United States. The program provides the only comprehensive, comparable estimates of the states and cities visited by overseas travelers to the United States as well as international destinations visited by U.S. residents;
• International travel receipts and payments data, providing the only source of data for the Bureau of Economic Analysis to develop estimates of travel and passenger fare exports and imports for the United States for more than 30 countries;
• Canadian travel to and from the United States data, provided by the Statistics Canada survey program;
• International visitors forecast program that provides estimates for international travel to the United States based on a sophisticated econometric model;
• Travel Trade Barometer program, an Internet trade survey conducted each quarter for several of the top inbound markets to the country, providing industry with a short-term forecast on travel demand and market conditions, and barriers to travel to the country for each of the participating countries; and
• Official Airlines Guide database, providing a survey sample framework for the In-Flight Survey and a competitive analysis of flights to and from the United States.

To learn more about the programs within the Travel & Tourism Statistical System, please go to the Research Programs section of the website.

To see the latest data on international travel to the United States go to the Inbound Travel to the U.S. section.

To see the latest data on U.S. travelers going abroad go to the Outbound Travel from the U.S. section.