During a press conference on Tuesday, 29 October, US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo shared some insights regarding the current visitor numbers in the United States and the way in which they are expected to evolve.
Since the pandemic, the United States has had a hard time bouncing back as far as tourism goes. Contrary to countries such as France or Spain, the US had only reached 84% of its pre-pandemic international arrivals by the end of 2023. Long visa delays were one of the main reasons for the slow revival, with first-time visitors having to wait for up to 400 days for a visa interview at a US consulate.
As of 2024, things seem to have taken a turn according to Blinken and Raimondo. During the twelve months up to 30 September, the US State Department issued a record-breaking 11.5 million visas, 8.5 million of which were visitor visas. The median waiting time for first-time visitors dropped to 60 days instead of 400 and the number of visa appointments will be increased by another million in 2025. As far as the passport processing time for Americans goes, that process was sped up by 2 weeks in 2024.
Given those changes, the United States can be expected to reach their pre-pandemic level of 79.4 million visitors over the course of next year, according to the Commerce Department. If the evolution continues, the country should welcome 90 million tourists by 2026, a number they only expected to be able to reach in 2027.
During the press conference, the importance of travel for the US economy was highlighted once more. According to the US Travel Association, inbound tourism amounted to $155 billion in direct spending from international visitors in 2023. Raimondo said the overall travel industry makes up for 10 million American jobs and $2.3 trillion in economic activity.
America is open for business, we're open for travel, and we're open for tourism. This year, we streamlined processes and issued more visas than ever before to bring in more travel and tourism to the U.S. and to support millions of American jobs in this industry. pic.twitter.com/u3UJCW57EV
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) October 29, 2024
The timing of the conference and the extra effort put into the travel industry isn’t random. Both Blinken and Raimondo speak of a “mega-decade” for sporting events in the US. “We’re doing everything we can to ramp up everyone coming to this country for these incredible events – get their visas in a timely way”, said Blinken.
The country will co-host the 2026 FIFA World Cup with Canada and Mexico, which is expected to attract 6 million visitors to 11 cities such as New York, Miami and Dallas. Two years later, Los Angeles will host the Summer Olympic Games in 2028 and, in 2031, the US will become the first North American country to host the Rugby World Cup.
