More international tourists visiting U.S., Utah

LOGAN — Like many industries and markets, international tourism appears to be rebounding.

Despite European economic troubles, international travel to the United States during the first two months of 2010 was up 15 percent from a year ago, said Mark Brown, senior market research analyst in the U.S. Department of Commerce's Office for the Travel and Tourism Industries.

"Many of these numbers are tremendous growth," Brown said Friday at the annual Utah Tourism Conference. "Many of these increases are off very large declines from a year ago, so they won't finish the year at these high levels. But certainly they're off to a good start in 2010, and that's fantastic news."

Globally, international travel fell about 5 percent in 2009, about the same as the U.S. decline. Spending fell 6 percent to 8 percent. But Brown predicts "a very nice recovery" in 2010, boosted by visitor increases from Asia and South America, particularly China and Brazil. Overall, U.S. international visitor totals could rise 6 percent this year, 5 percent for a few years after that and then be even higher in subsequent years.

Aiding in the boost will be the Tourism Promotion Act, signed by President Obama in March, he said. It will create a nonprofit corporation to promote the U.S. visits to world travelers and is expected to help spread international travelers beyond their current hot spots of California, New York and Florida, he added.

Obviously, that would be good for Utah, but the state's international tourism star already appears to be rising. The state's share of U.S. international travel has grown from 1.2 percent to 1.6 percent during the past four years. Most — 73 percent — are leisure travelers, with 19 percent here for business, 10 percent attending conventions and 9 percent visiting friends and relatives.

"This looks to me like Utah is definitely gaining in the international markets, so kudos to you," Brown told the audience of about 200.

The international travel industry rang up $1.25 trillion in sales last year, representing 2.7 percent of U.S. gross domestic product and accounting for 8.2 million direct or indirect jobs, Brown said. Catering to international travelers is important, he said, because while they represent only 4 percent of travelers in the United States, they represent 17 percent of overall traveler spending.