The Leading Travel Index (LTI), the predictive component of the US Travel Association’s Travel Trends Index (TTI), has predicted international inbound travel to the US will fall 6% over the next three months as the coronavirus outbreak continues to affect the global economy.
The latest TTI captured data from January, when awareness of coronavirus began to rise and China — one of the biggest travel markets to the US — implemented aggressive measures to curb travel out of certain cities. The predicted 6% three-month decline compared to the same period in 2019 is the sharpest in the five-year history of the TTI, and would be the largest drop in international inbound travel since the 2007-2008 financial crisis.
“There is a lot of uncertainty around coronavirus, and it is pretty clear that it is having an effect on travel demand—not just from China, and not just internationally, but for domestic business and leisure travel as well,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of US Travel Association.
