International Tourists Return, But Spending Lags. NewsWire

NewsWire: 9/24/22

• Spending by foreign visitors to America remains hugely below pre-pandemic levels. Though airline bookings surged during the summer, tourism spending isn’t expected to recover until 2025. (Bloomberg)
• NH: This summer, foreign tourists returned to the United States in droves. After the Biden administration lifted the testing requirement to enter the country in June, airline bookings spiked by 93% YoY.
• Yet even though visitor arrivals increased, visitor spending has lagged. In 2019, international tourists added $191B to the American economy, which tumbled by 80% in 2020 and has been recovering slowly ever since. By the end of 2022, tourist spending is expected to reach $124B. That’s certainly an improvement, but it’s still -35% below 2019. Visitor spending isn’t expected to make a full recovery until another three years from now--in 2025.
• One reason that spending has been slow to recover might be continuing outbound travel restrictions in some of the highest-spending inbound tourist markets, most notably China.
• Another obvious culprit is the dollar, which is the strongest it’s been in decades. International tourists are simply paying more than they would have a year ago. And as visitors here closed their wallets, Americans opened them: In June, U.S. tourists spent 56% more money in Europe than they did in the same month in 2019.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Where Are the Girls’ Basketball Players? In 2001, basketball was the most popular of girls’ high school sports with around 456K players nationwide. But according to The Wall Street Journal, as the 2000s rolled on, the number of players started declining and has been falling ever since. Two decades later, girls’ basketball participation has dropped -19% as participation in volleyball (+15%), soccer (+27%), and track and field (+10%) have all risen. Basketball is now the fourth most popular sport among girls. This has occurred even as women’s basketball has seen its fanbase grow, with TV ratings for both the WNBA and the NCAA women’s basketball tournament on the rise. Coaches say that after Title IX expanded girls’ opportunities in sports, high schoolers have gravitated towards other options that are less rough or are perceived as more “feminine.” Soccer’s steady growth might also reflect a cohort effect, with young fans who followed the popular women’s national team in the late 1990s later becoming or raising players themselves.