The UK market to the US is marginally outpacing the recovery of other core northern European source destinations but remained 27% behind pre-pandemic levels in 2022.
According to statistics from the US National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), 3.47 million UK visitors crossed the Atlantic last year, a 652% increase on 2021 but still well behind 2019 numbers.
This compared to 1.49 million German visitors and 1.32 million French travellers, with those markets respectively 28% and 29% down on 2019.
The UK remains America’s number one overseas source market and third internationally after Canada and Mexico. The top two markets accounted for 14.39 million and 12.53 million visitors in 2022, which equates to deficits of 31% and 32% against 2019.
The overall international market to the US in 2022 was 50.87 million visitors, 36% behind pre-pandemic levels.
Speaking at the IPW conference in San Antonio, NTTO acting deputy assistant secretary for travel and tourism Julie Heizer said the US was hoping for accelerated recovery of the UK market this year.
And she urged the travel trade to make use of detailed and easily searchable data now made freely available by the NTTO to shape programmes and drive further growth.
Heizer also hailed the progress of a five-year strategy published in 2022 and designed to help the US achieve a goal of 90 million visitors per year by 2027.
She said the strategy had already received strong commitment from a broad range of federal agencies, with 69 of 114 specific actions outlined in the plan already underway.