Written by Staff Writer by Ellen Britton
CNN
(CNN) — Travel in the United States is up overall, according to a new report published Wednesday.
In 2018, more than 137 million Americans traveled to their hometowns, marking the eighth consecutive year that US travel has climbed. That’s up 0.5% over 2017, with an estimated 165.2 million visits to US resorts, attractions and other attractions and 20.2 million visits to US national parks, according to the report by the National Association of Travel Agencies.
When accounting for changes in the number of international visitors to the United States, the rise in US travel of 0.4% in 2018 was a stronger 1.1% showing compared with the past two years.
In terms of trips by international travelers, Canada accounted for about 58% of domestic travelers, followed by Mexico (12%), Australia (10%), China (6%), Japan (5%), and Germany (3%). The total number of trips by foreign travelers increased 2.2% to reach 139.6 million in 2018.
The most popular international destinations for US visitors were Canada (2.8 million trips), Mexico (2.4 million trips), Australia (1.5 million trips), China (1.3 million trips), Japan (950,000 trips), Germany (510,000 trips) and Spain (375,000 trips).
US travel has hit historic highs, followed by Canada and Mexico, according to a new report. Courtesy Adrien Moreau
Not the only ones
Canada, Canada, Canada! Sorry, Mexico. Photo credit: FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images
The countries of the European Union have historically boasted the largest travel market for the United States, but the report indicates that UK travelers are starting to replace the EU.
In 2018, the UK traveler count reached 10.5 million — the largest among the world’s “EU 5” countries: Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK. However, just 1.4 million Brits traveled to the US, with the figure rising from 1.3 million in 2017.
The United States isn’t the only country beating the odds by welcoming more foreign visitors.
In 2017, Japan saw a 20% increase in the number of international visitors compared with 2016. Chinese visitors made up 17% of the total, with a 2.3% growth in visitor counts. In addition, record tourism continued in Britain as the growth in visitor numbers exceeded 1% in five out of six months in 2018.
The 5 biggest countries in terms of total foreign visitor counts of people arriving in the US: