U.S. tourism rebounds in March
Inbound U.S. tourism showed a sharper rebound in March after a long slide, though coverage says Asian arrivals remain a weak spot for the recovery. (skift.com) That trend was surfaced in travel‑demand reporting tied to broader seasonal patterns rather than country‑specific policy changes. (skift.com)
Inbound travel to the United States picked up in March, with overseas visitor arrivals rising 3.6% from a year earlier after only a 0.8% gain in February. (ftnnews.com) The March count reached 2.5 million overseas visitors, according to reporting on newly released National Travel and Tourism Office data. The same U.S. Travel Association dashboard said February had ended a nine-month slide, but only narrowly. (ftnnews.com) (ustravel.org) The March improvement came even as total international air passenger traffic to and from the United States fell 2.4% to 22 million. Non-U.S. citizen air arrivals still edged up 0.9% to 4.6 million. (ftnnews.com) The rebound follows a weak start to 2026. U.S. Travel said overseas arrivals were still down 1.9% year to date through February despite that month’s return to growth. (ustravel.org) March’s comparison was helped by the calendar. Easter falls in early April in 2026 after landing in late April in 2025, and U.S. Travel said February was also lifted in part by Lunar New Year shifting from January 2025 to February 2026. (ftnnews.com) (ustravel.org) Asia remains the lagging part of the recovery even with better March traffic. Air passenger volumes between the United States and Asia rose 10.5% in March, but they were still 4.8% below March 2019 levels. (ftnnews.com) The government’s longer-range forecast shows the same pattern. The National Travel and Tourism Office said China and Japan were still roughly halfway back to pre-pandemic levels in 2024, while South Korea had recovered further and India and Italy had already moved above 2019. (trade.gov) Washington still expects the broader recovery to continue. The National Travel and Tourism Office forecasts 77.1 million international arrivals in 2025 and 85 million in 2026, above the 79.4 million recorded in 2019. (trade.gov) For now, March looks like a stronger step up than February, not a full reset. The United States is drawing more overseas visitors again, but the return of Asian demand is still incomplete. (ftnnews.com) (trade.gov)
