Travel industry to fully recover from 9/11 by 2007

Data from the US suggests that tourism in 2007 will have finally recovered, financially, from the drop experienced in the wake of the 9/11 terrorism attack in 2001. According to Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez the country collected a record $107.4 billion in travel receipts in 2006, a 5 percent increase from the previous year. With an nearly 51.1 million people visiting the US last year, the country was a shade off its 2000 high of 51.2, and up 1.9 million on 2005 figures. Following the attack on the World Trade centers, visitor numbers fell 19 per cent in 2002. Long term forecasts predict a 21 percent increase in foreign visitors over the next five years to 61.6 million by 2011. Although Florida, where Gutierrez made his announcement, experienced a drop in visitors from the UK, sharp growth is expected from Brazil, China and India. Briton’s are the states second largest group of visitors.

In 2006, according to State Department figures, nine countries sent more tourists to the U.S. in 2006 than they ever had before: Mexico, South Korea, Australia, Spain, Ireland, India, China, Denmark and the Dominican Republic. Every year since 1989, the U.S. has recorded a tourism surplus whereby foreigners spend more in the US than Americans do traveling abroad.