Tourism to and from the U.S. has gradually recovered in 2022 without fully returning to pre-pandemic levels, according to data released by the Commerce Department. For the year as a whole, more than 50.8 million people visited the U.S., up 128% from 2021, when tourism was still largely affected by travel restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
The total, however, is just under two-thirds of the number of visitors who came to the United States in 2019, the last year before the pandemic began. The level of visitors is slowly approaching its 2019 levels, with December 2022 entries representing nearly three-quarters of the level seen in December 2019.
Americans, on the other hand, traveled abroad more extensively, with just over 80 million short-stay departures over the past year, more than 80% of the level seen in 2019, and up more than 65% year-over-year. In December, the level of departures nearly returned to pre-pandemic levels, as the 8.3 million trips out of the country accounted for nearly 94% of the number of Americans who went on vacation in December 2019.
Americans have benefited greatly from the savings they accumulated during the pandemic, which continue to support the U.S. economy despite the Federal Reserve's (Fed) rate hike in order to bring down inflation, which was still at 6% over one year in February. In detail, the countries bordering the United States, Mexico and Canada, are the main providers and recipients of short stays.
On the visitor side, in addition to the other two North American countries, the United Kingdom, Brazil and France are the top countries of origin for tourists traveling to the United States. U.S. tourism from Western Europe has seen the largest increase, with an almost fivefold increase in entries as travel restrictions have been relaxed. American tourists have largely favored the countries of North America and the Caribbean to go on vacation (more than 50% of outings), ahead of Western Europe (20%), to which American tourism has increased threefold over one year.
