With the three-day Memorial Day weekend just a week away, travelers can expect roads and airports to be more crowded than last year. But will your getaway cost more than it did last year? It depends on how you plan to get there.
04.05.2024 - 22:47 / skift.com / Dawit Habtemariam / Chris Thompson / Julie Stufft
Chinese tourists aren’t rushing to get a U.S. visitor visa like they did before the pandemic, according to a State Department official speaking Saturday at IPW, a travel trade conference focused on international inbound travel.
“We’ve already seen a triple of the visa applications in China from last year, but we’re nowhere near where we were before,” said Julie Stufft, deputy assistant secretary for visa services. “We’re still seeing a very, very small portion of what we saw in 2019 from China.”
It’s a big change. “China used to be our biggest visa issuing post in the world,” she said. “We did more visa [allocations] in China pre-pandemic than anywhere else.”
Millions of Chinese tourist visas come up for renewal next year. U.S. visitor visas last for 10 years before they have to be renewed. Stufft said the State Department is ready for the surge when it comes.
Chinese tourism to the U.S. is below 60% of its pre-pandemic level, said Alex Lasry, deputy assistant secretary for travel and tourism at the International Trade Administration.
Before the pandemic, China was the U.S.’s top tourism market in terms of spend. Chinese tourists spent over $30 billion in 2019, said Brand USA CEO and President Chris Thompson in an interview last year with Skift.
With the three-day Memorial Day weekend just a week away, travelers can expect roads and airports to be more crowded than last year. But will your getaway cost more than it did last year? It depends on how you plan to get there.
Over spring break, my wife and I took our four children from Utah to Southern California for a week at Disneyland and Universal Studios.
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A forecast from AAA estimates Memorial Day weekend travel will be up from last year with boosts in travelers across modes of transportation — but still shy of the all-time record set in 2005.
Many Japanese have liked to buy timeshares in the U.S. — especially in Hawaii — as an alternative to investing in a Japanese stock market that has produced poor returns for decades. But with the Japanese yen at a 36-year low against the dollar, that trend has reversed.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Tony Fernandes, a 60-year-old founder and CEO of UEGroup based in San Francisco, about his experience working remotely on a cruise ship. It's been edited for length and clarity.
Guest rooms and suites at one of the most anticipated hotels in the U.S. are now available for bookings starting later this year.
Even though Halloween is months away, this is the time of year when theme parks release information on their fall spooky season offerings — and even put tickets on sale. It may seem early, but we can assure you it is not. Popular dates sell out quickly, so you need to plan ahead if you don't want to miss out.
Los Angeles, California — The United States has “serious problems” when it comes to international inbound travel that must be resolved if the country is to regain its competitive edge.That’s the assessment of the U.S. Travel Association and its leader Geoff Freeman, the organization’s president and CEO.Freeman delivered his sober take on the problems plaguing inbound travel to the United States during a press conference today in Los Angeles, California where a travel industry convention is taking place.“The United States remains the world’s most desired nation to visit, but at the end of 2019 we had 79 million visitors internationally and in 2023 we had 67 million international visitors," Freeman told the media gathered for the IPW 2024 convention. “That’s only 84 percent of pre-pandemic levels.”“When you look at travel as an export - before the pandemic we had a 12 billion [person] travel trade surplus. At end of last year we had about a 50 billion [person] travel trade deficit,” Freeman added.There's a handful of challenges that the United States currently faces when it comes to attracting international visitors and significantly ramping up inbound numbers, said Freeman. And some of those challenges are within the country’s ability to fix, while others are not.There’s not much that can be done, for instance, about the strength of the U.S. dollar, which makes this country very expensive to visit from many other parts of the world. Similarly, there’s not much U.S. officials can do about the current prohibitions surrounding flights over Russian airspace, which pose a major obstacle for airlines coming to this country from China.However, visa wait times continue to be a significant roadblock for international visitors — and that’s an issue U.S. officials can — and should — be able to fix, Freeman said.“On the visa side, I checked this morning — if you're a Columbian and want to come to the U.S. the wait times are over 600 days to get an interview at a U.S. consulate,” said Freeman. “If you’re in Mexico, the wait times are over 800 days.”By contrast, for visitors from India the wait timeline for visa interviews has recently been reduced to a somewhat more reasonable 150 to 200 days. Similarly, wait times for those visiting from Brazil have been reduced drastically — from what was once 500 days down to just 21 days, according to the U.S. Travel Association.“It shows us that it can be done. When the State Department uses their ingenuity and gets creative and puts resources in the right places, this problem can be solved,” explained Freeman. “But it’s been going on for far too long. It needs to be solved now.”
Governor Gavin Newsom and Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta just broke the news that California still retains the largest market share of tourism in the entire United States. According to new data released today, travel spending in the Golden State reached a record high of $150.4 billion in 2023, outstripping the previous record amount of $144.9 billion seen in 2019.
In her Michelin three star restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco, Dominique Crenn creates dishes that have been described as gastronomic poetry in their complex, ethereal visuals and flavor. As the culinary consultant for the film “The Menu,” her dishes served at a fictional temple of gastronomy, were unlike anything a diner had ever seen. In February, dishes created by the chef began rolling out in Air France’s premium cabins that, while not as wild as the film’s creations, are also creative, delicious and uniquely hers.
Many American tourism marketers are well-paid. Visit California CEO Caroline Beteta recently collected more than $1.5 million in compensation. Brand USA CEO Chris Thompson recently took home over $700,000.