travelers
Few things work as well as international air service for a community to quickly add economic impact. The World Travel & Tourism Council notes that “prior to the pandemic, Travel and tourism (including its direct, indirect, and induced impacts) accounted for 10.5% of all jobs (334 million) and 10.4% of global GDP (US$10.3 trillion). Meanwhile, international visitor spending amounted to US$1.91 trillion in 2019.”
About one in ten jobs is tourism-related, making this industry a great employer. Since tourism is service-oriented, this makes intuitive sense. Drilling down into US-specific numbers, the US Travel Association offers an economic impact report by state and even district.
The International Trade Administration (ITA) offers useful numbers within the US: in 2019, international visitors spent $233.5 billion, meaning international travel to the United States was worth over a half billion dollars daily.
Within the ITA is the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), which surveys international travelers. Their survey is the SIAT (Survey of International Air Travelers). This link is highly recommended as it has an interactive model showing the data from several perspectives.
We developed a model using a selection of the SIAT, as shown below.
To simplify the model, we report only the top 20 overseas markets to the United States and list several years’ worth of data to approximate visitation volumes. Data gaps do not mean zero travelers; it simply means no survey responses were gathered during the period that could be expanded into an estimate.
- Select a country on the left; the tables will update with estimated visitors in descending order. The data has gaps as it is based on a survey rather than a census.
- The right table shows visitation sparklines. The idea is to offer guidance on how the market is growing.
- The data card lists the average number of destinations a visitor from the selected country spent time in.
Clicking on any item in the tables updates the model, allowing us to drill down into as much detail as possible. For example, if you select Germany and then click Wyoming on the right table, the four destinations they visited are listed on the left table. Play around with this to get a sense of it.
The average destination number has another aspect. If, for example, you run an EU-based airline and have access to a long-range capable single-aisle aircraft, there is something here for you. Say you run a UK-based airline; select the United Kingdom from the menu.
Your first impression from the left table is that all the top locations are US hubs, and everyone is a fortress hub for a US airline. But look over to the right table and see there may be opportunities in markets probably overlooked by these big US airlines.
If, for example, you select Utah, it is clear your UK-based customer/traveler likely wants to visit several other destinations. Although Salt Lake City is the obvious US port of entry, a US-based airline might be a willing partner to move them to these locations. And this does not necessarily mean Southwest Airlines; it could be Avelo, Breeze, or Allegiant. There are options enabling a disruptive new flight to extend that disruption.
Attracting new international air service is big business. Several consultants do this exclusively. The SIAT data offers insight into how travelers move around the United States. It is an under utilized data source.
