U.S. Corporate Travel Won't Fare As Well As Leisure, Says TIA

The Travel Industry Association's (TIA) annual forecast is rosy: The U.S. travel industry should post moderate gains in nearly all sectors again in 2008.

Travel spending by domestic and international visitors in 2008 will increase 5.2 percent, to $778.2 billion, according to an Oct. 24 release. This number is up from the projected full-year 2007 travel spending of $740 billion, which would be a 5.7 percent increase over 2006. 

Domestic leisure trips are likely to continue an upward trend of modest growth in 2008, climbing 2 percent to 1.6 billion trips, says TIA. Domestic leisure trips are expected to finish 2007 up 2.5 percent over last year.

Downside: U.S. business travel doesn't look as good as leisure travel does, according to the study's findings. (For more corporate travel forecasting, see "Amex Predicts Price Increases" in last week's TDR v15n21). Travel for business in 2008 is expected to remain stable, increasing by 0.4 percent, registering nearly 502 million trips. This slight increase will offset a projected decline of 1.7 percent in business travel for 2007, compared with a year ago, TIA says.

International travel (including visitors from Canada and Mexico) to the United States is expected to rise 3.7 percent in 2008 to 55.6 million visitors, following a projected 5.1 percent increase for 2007.

Bad news: The year-over-year data above mask an 11-percent decline in overseas visitors to the U.S. from 2000-2007, the study points out. Overseas travelers, primarily from Western Europe and Japan, represent the U.S.'s top inbound visitors and spend the most money. Although overseas travel is expected to increase slightly in 2007, it has yet to surpass the 2000 level, despite the weak dollar making the U.S. a travel bargain.
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