Americas > North America > United States > United States Tourism Profile

United States: United States Tourism Profile

2012/04/05

Visit-Mount-Rainier-National-Park.jpg

Solid increase for all sectors in 2014

The US travel and tourism industry experienced increase in all major categories in 2014, a reflection of the slowly improving economy. Airlines, hotels and car rental companies all benefitted from an increased number of transactions and higher daily rates and ticket prices. Each sector has as well been cautiously increasing its fleets and number of outlets in order to match request and prevent a glut of supply. Inbound tourism was a strong increase driver and has been driven by increased tourism flows from developing nations, particularly departures from Asia and Latin America.

Wave of airline consolidation seems to be over

American Airlines and US Airways were granted approval for their merger in November 2013 by the DOJ, seeming to end a wave of consolidation in the US airline industry that began in 2001 at the same time as American purchased TWA. The end of this wave sees American Airlines as the world’s major airline and the industry dominated by four major players, inclunding American, United (merged with Continental in 2010), Delta (merged with Northwest in 2008) and Southwest (merged with AirTran in 2010). At the same time, a series of smaller players like Alaska, Hawaiian and Spirit continue to battle for market share.

Leisure outperforming business travel

Growth in leisure tourism continues to outpace business travel, a trend that is likely to continue over the estimate period. The in general economy continues to struggle with job creation and employers are looking to keep costs low. Additionally telecommunications continue developing, enabling business partners to connect face to face without the need for expensive travel. MICE travel has been a bright spot for the business sector and the benefits of attending conventions and events is hard to replace with digital solutions.

Online travel competition heats up

Consumers continue to look to online travel options as their initial option in travel bookings. Consumers have an unparalleled number of resources for peer reviews and an array of options for comparison shopping. In response major players in online travel are looking to become all-encompassing in order to prevent the loss of sales. Additionally newer entrants to online travel sales like Google, Trip Advisor and Hipmunk are looking to expand their market share, setting up increasingly fierce battles for consumer attention and dollars.

US tourism poised for strong estimate period

US tourism looks to be on a strong increase path and hopes to put the world recession behind it. Consumers are looking to travel both domestically and internationally. The number of retirees in the US will increase rapidly as a result of the baby boom generation’s pending retirements and with it a lot of available time for traveling. Younger generations focused on a wealth of experiences will as well be strong increase drivers as they look to explore the US and the world. Additionally, the US remains a premier tourist destination that is expected to draw tourists from developed and developing nations alike.

Travel and Tourism Industry Suffers as Recession Extends Globally

The travel and tourism industry managed to sustain itself due to the influx of international travellers during the initial half of 2008. However beginning the second half of 2008 and into 2009, inbound travel to the USA eroded, and in combination with continued decreases in domestic business and domestic leisure travel, the industry was negatively impacted. Airlines cut capacity, hotels dropped room rates, and online travel agents permanently waived booking fees. Despite these moves along with discounting and price promotions, this was not enough to spur travel.
 

More Americans Elect for Staycations instead of Vacations

Some Americans gave up vacation time all as the unemployment rate surpassed 10% in 2009 (which marked the initial time it had reached double figures since 1983). Others elected for staycations whereby in lieu of travelling to an additional country, much less an additional city, staycationers used that time to remain at home and perhaps visit local attractions such as landmarks, zoos or museums. Unfortunately outside of some of the local tourist attractions, most with a stake in the travel and tourism industry suffered as staycations generated little or no revenue for these companies.
 

Low Cost Carriers Seek to Gain Better Market Share

While Southwest Airlines continued to stand as the major low cost carrier, growing low cost rivals such as JetBlue, AirTran, Republic Airways, Virgin America and Allegiant Air did not sit idly by. Southwest continued to differentiate itself in 2009 from all airline operators due to its lack of baggage fees. Low cost carriers as a whole increased their share of passenger volume in 2009, and despite capacity cuts, a lot of of them increased the number of cities they served while even filling in slots at primary airports opened due to cuts by legacy carriers. Continued courtship of additional business travel is expected as leisure and business travellers become additional familiar with and willing to fly low cost carriers.
 

Online Travel Agents Make Booking Fee Waivers Permanent

At the same time as Priceline decided to drop booking fees for flights in 2007, its primary rivals, Expedia, Travelocity and Orbitz initially responded by raising their fees in 2008. However, those plans were quickly scrapped and temporary waivers to booking fees were instituted. As travel request dropped even further in 2009, and those waivers along with their respective price guarantee programmes became permanent fixtures. The online travel agents continued to not only battle one an additional, but as well direct suppliers and their websites inclunding local and national governments over taxes on hotel rooms, and these battles will continue into the estimate period.
 

Gradual Industry Recovery Expected Over the Estimate Period

The world economy began to show signs of recovery during the second half of 2009. While the high unemployment rate in the USA will remain a challenge, travel is projected to slowly rebound as the number and level of discounts and price promotions entice additional Americans to respond. At the end of March, the federal government signed into law the Travel Promotion Act, which will promote the USA as a premier international travel destination, while as well communicating the travel policies of the country. This is likely to spur additional international visitors to the country.

Tourism Statement Q4 2010

Rabobank
United States News
More >
UCLGA en
Trending Articles
A380
Eaton
LAN.COM
ISS Singapore
Elsewedy Electric
Telecom Italia Sparkle