Indians fifth largest international visitors to US, 3rd biggest spenders

NEW DELHI: India emerged as the fifth-largest country in terms of international visitors to the US in 2021, up five places from pre-pandemic 2019, despite the Delta variant wave that saw many countries, including the US, imposing restrictions on outbound travel from here for many months.
The US received about 2. 2 crore international visitors last year, down 72% from 2019. Mexico (just over 1 crore) and Canada (25. 3 lakh) — which shares a land border with the US — occupied the top two slots as source countries. Among countries with which the US has no land border, India was the third-largest overseas source country, with 4. 3 lakh visitors from here, next only to Colombia (10. 6 lakh) and the United Kingdom (4. 6 lakh), as per the US department of commerce data.
In terms of spending by overseas visitors (not including airfares) in America, Indians were the third-highest. US commerce department data shows US travel and tourism-related exports in 2021 was at $81 billion. Of this, Mexico accounted for $11. 7 billion, China $9 billion and India $5. 8 billion.
The 4. 3 lakh visitors from India were 71% lower than prepandemic 2019 levels. Once the US, in line with the global trend, also relaxes pre-departure testing requirements for fully vaccinated travellers from India, travel will again grow at a much faster pace. This will be a further boost when sky-high jet fuel prices fall globally, enabling airfares to return to saner levels.