International Travel To and From the United States
Box 2

Data on International Travel To and From the United States

The data here are limited to people staying one or more nights at their international destination and, therefore, do not include all cross-border movements between the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The data for international arrivals reported in this section come mainly from the Visitors Arrivals Program (Form I-94) administered by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Tourism Industries.

The Visitors Arrivals Program includes overseas visitors staying for one or more nights for a period of less than 12 months whether for business, pleasure, or study. It does not include people transiting the United States en route to another country. Mexican tourist arrival estimates derived from the I-94 program are limited to those visiting the U.S. interior, beyond the 40 kilometer (25 mile) U.S. border zone, and those traveling by air. These data are supplemented by data from Banco de México to report total Mexican arrivals on an annual basis for people staying one or more nights.

For Canadians, the Office of Tourism Industries relies on Statistics Canada’s International Visitor Survey to provide monthly inbound visitors (again, for one or more nights) from Canada to the United States.

Data for U.S. residents traveling internationally are derived from the U.S. International Air Travel Statistics (Form I-92) program, also a joint effort between the INS and the Office of Tourism Industries. Data are collected from airlines for all international arriving and departing flights with the exception of those to and from Canada. U.S. resident travel data to Canada for one or more nights is provided by Statistics Canada’s International Visitor Survey. Estimates of U.S. resident travel to Mexico by means of transportation other than air is provided by Banco de México.