US Tourism:
Making America Unwelcoming? — April 2025

Preliminary data from UN Tourism suggests that the world’s international tourist volumes in 2024 had almost recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Its data suggests there were 1,445m international tourist arrivals world-wide last year, 11% higher than in 2023, compared with 1,465m in 2019. International tourist receipts it estimates reached US$1.6tn, 4% higher than in 2019.

The USA features as the third largest country ranked by inbound tourists (behind France and Spain — see table). In 2024 the numbers of visitors rose by 9% year-on-year to 72.4m. The USA also ranks as the largest country in the world for tourism exports with tourist receipts last year of $215bn — and it maintained a healthy trade balance of $37bn in the sector.