Washington, April 9 (IANS) India, the eleventh top country of origin of international travellers to the US, is forecast to send as many as 54 per cent more visitors during the next five years.
The US can expect four percent average annual growth in tourism during the next five years with a record 72.2 million foreign travellers projected to visit in 2014 alone, US Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker said releasing the Spring 2014 Forecast for International Travel.
"A record number of international visitors continue to choose the United States as their travel destination, which is contributing to our economic growth and supporting millions of jobs," Pritzker said.
All top-20 visitor origin countries are forecast to grow from 2013 through 2018.
Countries with the largest total growth percentages are China (139 percent), Colombia (56 percent), India (54 percent), Taiwan (52 percent), Brazil (50 percent), and Argentina (48 percent).
Visitor volume in 2014 is expected to increase 3.5 percent and reach 72.2 million visitors who stay one or more nights in the United States. This growth would build on the 4.7 percent increase in arrivals in 2013, which resulted in a record 69.8 million visitors, according to the report.
Asia-Pacific is expected to produce a 44 percent increase in visitors by 2018. High growth rates and large growth volumes are expected for China (21 percent), Taiwan (15 percent), India (12 percent), and South Korea (7 percent) in 2014.
Similarly, these four countries are expected to have among the largest total visitor volume growth of any country from 2013 through 2018.
China is expected to increase a total of 2.5 million visitors, or 139 percent through 2018, and produce the second-largest number of additional visitors behind Canada.
India could add 461,000 additional visitors (+54 percent), while South Korea should produce an additional 375,000 visitors (+28 percent), the report said.
(Arun Kumar can be contacted at arun.kumar@ians.in)
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