Coronavirus to deliver largest decline in international travel to U.S. since financial crisis
Foreign travel to the U.S. is slated to tumble over the next six months, according to the latest data from the U.S. Travel Association.
What's happening: The USTA's three-month Leading Travel Index (LTI) projects international inbound travel will fall by 6% year-over-year, "as the coronavirus outbreak continues to roil the global economy," the agency said in a release Tuesday.
- "The latest Travel Trends Index (TTI) captures data from January, when awareness of coronavirus began to ramp up and China — one of the biggest travel markets to the U.S. — implemented aggressive measures to curb travel out of certain cities."
Why it matters:
The predicted drop of 6% over the three-month period is the sharpest in the five-year history of the TTI, and would be the largest decline in international inbound travel since the 2007-2008 financial crisis.