International visitors spent nearly $16.5 billion on travel to, and tourism-related activities within the US in December 2022, an increase of nearly 49 percent compared to the same month of 2021, a report said.

This was also the single highest month for US tourism-related exports since February 2020—the onset of the global pandemic, reported eTurboNews, citing data released by the US National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO).

Meanwhile, Americans spent more than $15.5 billion traveling abroad, yielding a balance of trade surplus of $932 million for the month, the report said.

During 2022, international visitors spent nearly $162.6 billion on US travel and tourism-related goods and services, nearly doubling (up 96%) the amount spent in 2021, it added.

International visitors injected, on average, more than $445 million a day into the US economy in 2022, according to the report.

Travel spending
•    Purchases of travel and tourism-related goods and services by international visitors traveling in the US totalled $9.1 billion in December 2022 (compared to $5.4 billion in December 2021), an increase of 68 percent when compared to the previous year.
•    For a pre-pandemic perspective, travel receipts totalled $11.8 billion in December 2019. These goods and services include food, lodging, recreation, gifts, entertainment, local transportation in the US, and other items incidental to foreign travel.
•    Travel receipts accounted for 55 percent of total US travel and tourism exports in December 2022.

Passenger fare receipts
•    Fares received by US carriers from international visitors totalled $3.2 billion in December 2022 (compared to $2 billion in December 2021), an increase of 62 percent when compared to the previous year.
•    For a pre-pandemic perspective, the US exported nearly $3.4 billion in passenger air transportation services in December 2019. These receipts are expenditures by foreign residents on international flights of US air carriers.
•    Passenger fare receipts accounted for 20 percent of total US travel and tourism exports in December 2022. – TradeArabia News Service