International tourism, expenditures in United States of America
United States of America: International tourism, expenditures was 1.7% in 2020. ▼ Falling
International tourism, expenditures in United States of America, 1995–2020
Source: Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files, UN Tourism. Measured in % of total imports.
Analysis
In 2020, international tourism, expenditures in United States of America stood at 1.7%. That is the lowest value across all 26 years on record.
The figure is down 71.0% on the previous year and down 66.8% over ten years.
Over the whole period, international tourism, expenditures in United States of America peaked at 7.1% in 1998 and was at its lowest, 1.7%, in 2020.
That places United States of America 154th out of 186 countries with data for 2020, putting it in the bottom quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 26 years of available data.
International tourism, expenditures in United States of America, year by year
| Year | % of total imports | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 6.9% | — |
| 1996 | 6.9% | -0.0% |
| 1997 | 6.9% | +0.7% |
| 1998 | 7.1% | +3.4% |
| 1999 | 6.3% | -12.1% |
| 2000 | 5.9% | -6.1% |
| 2001 | 6.0% | +1.5% |
| 2002 | 5.6% | -5.6% |
| 2003 | 5.4% | -5.0% |
| 2004 | 5.2% | -2.1% |
| 2005 | 4.9% | -6.3% |
| 2006 | 4.7% | -3.7% |
| 2007 | 4.8% | +0.6% |
| 2008 | 4.7% | -2.3% |
| 2009 | 5.8% | +24.6% |
| 2010 | 5.2% | -10.0% |
| 2011 | 4.8% | -7.1% |
| 2012 | 5.0% | +2.9% |
| 2013 | 4.8% | -3.8% |
| 2014 | 4.9% | +1.7% |
| 2015 | 5.2% | +7.1% |
| 2016 | 5.4% | +4.0% |
| 2017 | 5.4% | +0.2% |
| 2018 | 5.7% | +4.2% |
| 2019 | 6.0% | +5.5% |
| 2020 | 1.7% | -71.0% |
United States of America compared with similar countries
- United States of America's 1.7% is below the median for high income countries, which is 3.7%, 47% of the median. (65 countries reporting)
Biggest year-on-year movements
Years where International tourism, expenditures in United States of America changed far more than this series normally does. A large move can be a real event or a change in how the figure was measured — the source note below says who published it.
| Year | Change | From | To |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | -71.0% | 6.0% | 1.7% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 6.8% | 6.3% | 7.1% | 5 |
| 2000s | 5.3% | 4.7% | 6.0% | 10 |
| 2010s | 5.2% | 4.8% | 6.0% | 10 |
| 2020s | 1.7% | 1.7% | 1.7% | 1 |
Countries ranked near United States of America
- 151 Kazakhstan 1.9% compare
- 152 Guatemala 1.8% compare
- 153 North Macedonia 1.7% compare
- 155 Nicaragua 1.7% compare
- 156 Bosnia and Herzegovina 1.7% compare
- 157 Viet Nam 1.6% compare
More private sector data for United States of America
- Merchandise trade 18.5% (2025)
- Food imports 6.9% (2024)
- Manufactures imports 78.4% (2024)
- Merchandise imports 3.51 trillion current US$ (2025)
- Food exports 9.5% (2024)
- Manufactures exports 55.7% (2024)
- Merchandise exports 2.19 trillion current US$ (2025)
- Merchandise exports (current US$), per capita 6,394 current US$ per person (2025)
- Merchandise exports (current US$), per unit of GDP 0.071 current US$ per US$ of GDP (2025)
- Merchandise exports (current US$), annual growth rate 5.99 % change on previous year (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is international tourism, expenditures in United States of America?
- International tourism, expenditures in United States of America was 1.7% in 2020, according to Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files, UN Tourism.
- What is the highest international tourism, expenditures recorded in United States of America?
- The highest recorded value was 7.1% in 1998.
- What is the lowest international tourism, expenditures recorded in United States of America?
- The lowest recorded value was 1.7% in 2020.
- How does United States of America rank for international tourism, expenditures?
- United States of America ranks 154th out of 186 countries with data for 2020.
- Is international tourism, expenditures rising or falling in United States of America?
- Over the last ten years it is down 66.8%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this United States of America data come from?
- The figures come from Yearbook of Tourism Statistics, Compendium of Tourism Statistics and data files, UN Tourism, published as part of International tourism, expenditures (% of total imports). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 26 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data).
About this data
International tourism expenditures are expenditures of international outbound visitors in other countries, including payments to foreign carriers for international transport. These expenditures may include those by residents traveling abroad as same-day visitors, except in cases where these are important enough to justify separate classification. For some countries they do not include expenditures for passenger transport items. Their share in imports is calculated as a ratio to imports of goods and services, which comprise all transactions between residents of a country and the rest of the world involving a change of ownership from nonresidents to residents of general merchandise, goods sent for processing and repairs, nonmonetary gold, and services.