The Latest US Tourism Statistics by State
The USA is one of the most visited destinations in the world, and for a good reason. Who wouldn’t want to see NYC, LA, Miami, or one of the country's hundreds of tourist attractions? While the US remains on the wish list of millions of international tourists, the COVID pandemic hugely impacted tourism stateside.
And as the US tourism statistics by state reveal, even the most visited ones had to rely on domestic visitors to survive the restrictions. As of 2021, things are starting to look better for US tourism, and future estimations predict that things will soon go back to normal.
Read on to discover the current state of US tourism, along with future projections.
Top 10 US Tourism Statistics by State
22.1 million international tourists visited the USA in 2021.
In 2021, the travel and tourism sector contributed $1.27 trillion to the US GDP.
The USA is the sixth most visited country in the world
Only 2% of Americans have visited all 50 states.
Alaska is the least visited state, with only 13% of Americans having visited it.
The estimated number of tourists that visited Florida in 2021 is 122 million.
The spending directly related to traveling in California reached $100.2 billion in 2021.
32.9 million tourists visited New York City in 2021.
Las Vegas is yet to reach 42,523,700 visitors from 2019.
The total spending directly related to traveling in Texas was 82.9 billion in 2019.
General US Tourism Statistics
22.1 million international tourists visited the USA in 2021.
The above figure represents a significant improvement from the 19.21 million tourists who visited in 2020. However, it’s still a far cry from the number of tourists who visited the USA on a yearly basis before the pandemic.
Namely, in 2019, 79.44 million international tourists visited the country, while their number in 2018 was 79.75 million. While the yearly data for 2022 is yet to be available, monthly figures indicate that the effect COVID had on US tourism is slowly starting to wear off.
The latest US tourism trends suggest a steady growth of international visitors, with their numbers reaching 4,874,485 in September and 5,136,449 in October 2022.
(Statista, CEIC Data)
In 2021, the travel and tourism sector contributed $1.27 trillion to the US GDP.
The total travel spending in the US for that year was around $890 billion, generated mainly by domestic tourists. Americans in 2021 took 1.77 billion domestic leisure trips and collectively spent $846 billion on their travels. The remaining $40 billion were generated by international tourists.
Travel industry statistics also show that Americans spent another $118 billion on domestic business trips. Lastly, 49.1 million US residents also traveled outside the country, 18.21 million of which traveled to overseas destinations.
(Statista)
The USA is the sixth most visited country in the world.
According to the data from 1,200,000 international and 200,000 American Visited users, the USA is just outside the top five most visited countries in the world, with 44% of the app’s user base having been to the USA.
Traveling statistics from the app further reveal that the largest percentage, or 69%, of Visited users who have been to the US have visited New York. Florida is the second most visited state at 65%, followed by California at 57%. Nevada at 45% and New Jersey at 37% round up the top five.
On the other hand, California is the state where the largest percentage of Visited users want to visit at 49%, followed by Hawaii at 43%. Somewhat surprisingly, New York is only third at 40%, followed by Alaska at 39% and Washington at 37%.
(Visited App)
Only 2% of Americans have visited all 50 states.
US domestic tourism statistics show that the average American has visited 17 states. Only 11% of Americans have never left their home state, while the largest portion of Americans, or 18%, have been to between 10 and 14 states. Furthermore, 14% of Americans have visited between 15 and 19, and 13% between five and nine states.
According to a recent YouGov survey, Florida is the most visited state by domestic tourists, with 61% of Americans having visited it. With 55% of Americans having seen it, New York is number two, followed by California, at 54%.
(YouGov)
Alaska is the least visited state, with only 13% of Americans having visited it.
The data on US tourism by state from a recent survey reveals that North Dakota is the second-least visited state in the US, with only 15% of domestic tourists having visited it. Each having been visited by 19% of American tourists, Idaho, Montana, and Nebraska are tied for the third-least visited state in the country.
The same survey also provided curious results regarding American travelers' most and least favorite states. Namely, 9% of domestic tourists named Florida their favorite state, 8% said California, 7% Hawaii, while New York and Texas were each cited as favorite states by 5%.
Interestingly, 7% also cited California their least favorite state, 6% said Texas, equal 5% portions named Florida and New York, and 3% cited New Jersey.
(YouGov)
Tourism Statistics by State
The estimated number of tourists that visited Florida in 2021 is 122 million.
The vast majority of visitors, or 117.4 million, were domestic, while only 4.6 million were international tourists. During the pandemic in 2020, the number of tourists visiting Florida dropped to 75.4 million.
In the same year, the impact of Florida’s tourism on its GDP was $61.7 billion, or 34.6% less than the $96.5 billion in 2019. The circumstances also reduced the number of tourism-supported jobs in the state from 1.62 million to 1.06 million.
Furthermore, American vacation statistics reveal that the largest portion of Florida’s domestic visitors in 2021, or 8.9%, were New York, NY, residents. Atlanta, GA, is Florida’s second-largest origin market accounting for 5.7% of its domestic tourists, followed by Birmingham, AL, with 4.1%.
Moreover, 49.4% of the leisure trips Floridians took in 2021 had a destination in their own state of Florida. As for the demographics of the Americans who visited Florida, 40% were older than 55, 32% were between 35 and 54, and 28% were between 18 and 34.
Moreover, statistics about traveling to Florida show that 30% of the tourists arrive by airplane, while the remaining 70% by other means of transportation. The largest portion of them, or 47%, stay between one and three nights, 33% stay between four and seven, and only 20% stay for eight or more nights.
Finally, data reveals that Florida is attractive for tourists throughout the whole year, as 35% of the visitors visited Florida during summer, 23% during winter, 22% during spring, and 20% during fall.
(Visit Florida)
The spending directly related to traveling in California reached $100.2 billion in 2021.
According to the latest tourism statistics by state, travel-related spending in California in 2021 was 46.3% higher than the year before but still a long off of the peak of $144.8 billion in 2019. The food service industry contributed the largest portion of $25,9 billion of the total spending, followed by the accommodation sector, with $23.2 billion.
These two industries also accounted for more than half of California's tourism-supported jobs, or 534,523 of the total 927,147. Additionally, data on sales taxes by state shows that travel-related spending in California generated $9.8 billion in state and local tax revenue.
Furthermore, American tourist statistics reveal that 30.67% of the domestic visitors who went to California between July and September 2022 were California residents. In addition, 28.34% were Americans from the western half of the US, and 40.98% were from the rest of the states.
As for international visitors, Mexico was California’s largest origin market in 2021, with 3.7 million tourists and $2 billion in travel-related spending, accounting for 44% of the international tourist spending share.
Projections on US tourism numbers estimate the total visitor spending in California to reach $137.8 billion in 2022 and grow to $155.6 billion in 2023, exceeding the 2019 peak. However, the number of visits is not expected to exceed the 2019 peak of 286 million until 2024, when 291.5 million tourists are expected to visit the Golden State.
(Visit California)
32.9 million tourists visited New York City in 2021.
New York City is traditionally among the most visited cities stateside and worldwide, and the latest US tourism statistics by city show that The Big Apple is steadily growing to its usual, pre-pandemic visit numbers.
Tourism in NYC was in a slump in 2020, when the city only welcomed 22.3 million visitors. Just a year later, that number increased by more than 10 million, and future projections estimated 56.4 million tourists in 2022 and 65 million in 2023.
On the financial side of things, data indicates that visitors spent $52.05 billion in NY in 2021, and the accommodation sector generated the largest share of 32%, or $16.4 billion. According to the United States travel statistics, the lion’s share, or $47.39 billion, of the spending was done by domestic tourists, $3.93 billion by tourists from overseas, and 730 million by Canadian visitors.
Moreover, GDP statistics by state reveal that in addition to the $52.02 billion of direct spending, NY tourism generated another $33.5 billion in indirect and induced sales.
Exactly half of the total spending was done in NYC, while 11% was done in Long Island. The Hudson Valley, and Central New York, each account for a 7% share of the spending.
American travel statistics show that business trips to New York only accounted for 12% of the total number of visits in 2021, but future estimations predict that their share will increase to 16% in 2022, when 9 million business trips to NY are expected.
(NYC & Company, Tourism Economics)
Las Vegas is yet to reach the 42,523,700 visitors from 2019.
When the pandemic struck in 2020, Nevada’s visitor volume took a significant hit, and the number of tourists in Las Vegas dropped by 55.2%, from 42,523,700 to 19,031,100. Tourism data by city shows that the visitor volume was down across the whole state, and even the small tourist town of Laughlin suffered a 43.7% decrease.
Things started to improve by 2021, and after growing by 69.4%, the number of Las Vegas visitors reached 32,230,600. The gaming revenue in Clark county experienced an even bigger growth of 75.1% and reached $11,452,004,000. Additionally, weekend occupancy rates in Las Vegas crossed the 80% mark and ended the year with 81.3%.
Data on tourism in the United States suggests that Nevada’s tourism continued to grow in 2022, though not as rapidly as in 2021. According to the latest reports, in the eleven months of the year, excluding December, the visitor volume of Las Vegas reached 35,522,100, and the occupancy is back to its usual rate of 89.6%.
Moreover, the revenue generated from gaming has already reached $11,629,686,000, which is 1.5% higher than the entire year of 2021.
(LVCVA)
The total spending directly related to traveling in Texas was 82.9 billion in 2019.
According to US tourism statistics, the above figure jumps to $169 billion when all the indirect and induced revenues are also considered. Interestingly, tourism is the second largest export-oriented industry in the Lone Star State after oil and gas. It supports 1.3 million jobs, and as the data on property taxes by state reveals, tourism saves each household in Texas $760 annually.
Namely, spending related to travel generated $4.7 billion in state tax, or 8.4% of the total state tax revenue of 2019. Additionally, local taxes generated $3.1 billion by travel spending, or 4.8% of the total local tax revenue the same year.
Finally, data on the number of tourists by state reveals that 72.5 million out-of-state tourists visited Texas in 2018. They spent $37.5 billion in Texas, which accounted for more than half, or 54%, of the total travel-related spending in the state.
The contribution of non-residents towards the Texas state and local taxes for that year was $2.8 billion. As a final fact, one in every ten dollars spent in Texas in 2018 was spent by international travelers.
(Texas Travel Alliance)
The Summary
US travel trends indicate that the worst is behind us, and there are plenty of good things to come in the following years. While some states are already completely back on track, 2023 is the year when most should return to their pre-pandemic figures, and some even hope to reach new heights in the year ahead of us.
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