$169.8 Billion and 906,000 Jobs: What America’s First State-by-State Tourism Report in Nearly Three Decades Reveals About the True Power of International Visitors

For the first time since 1997, the U.S. government has mapped exactly where overseas visitors spend their money — and which states are winning the race for international tourism dollars. The findings are as striking as they are instructive

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WASHINGTON, D.C. (Tourism Reporter) — Numbers, in the tourism business, have a habit of flattening what is actually a deeply uneven story. Total arrivals, aggregate spending, national headlines — these are useful shorthand, but they tell governments, destination marketing organisations and travel executives relatively little about where the real action is happening, which economies are being transformed by international visitors, and — critically — where the opportunities remain untapped.

That is precisely why the report quietly released by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) in April 2026 matters so much more than its modest presentation might suggest. Titled Overseas Visitor Impact on State Economies 2024, it is the first time since 1997 — nearly three decades — that the federal government has produced a state-by-state breakdown of what overseas visitors actually spend across all 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and U.S. territories, and how many jobs that spending directly supports.

For anyone responsible for tourism policy, destination strategy or investment decisions in the United States, this is not a report to skim. It is a map of where international tourism is functioning as an economic engine — and where that engine has barely been switched on.

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The Headline: $169.8 Billion Spent, Nearly 906,000 Jobs Created — America’s Overseas Tourism Economy Is a Powerhouse That Most People Still Underestimate

Start with the numbers that frame everything else. In 2024, the United States welcomed 35.2 million overseas visitors — a figure that excludes arrivals from Canada and Mexico and focuses solely on travellers from further afield. Those visitors spent $169.8 billion on travel-related goods and services across the country, a figure that encompasses lodging, food, recreation, local transport, retail shopping and — consistent with Bureau of Economic Analysis methodology — education-related spending by international students.

That $169.8 billion directly supported approximately 906,000 jobs across the U.S. economy.

To put that in perspective: the entire tourism sector in many individual countries does not generate that level of employment, let alone from a single visitor segment. The scale of overseas visitor spending in the United States is, by any international standard, extraordinary — and yet it remains, in much public discourse, an afterthought compared to domestic travel.

The report’s significance is amplified by its novelty. The NTTO’s own introduction is unambiguous on this point: for the first time since 1997, the office has produced estimates of the economic impact of overseas visitors broken down to the state and territory level. That nearly three decades passed without such a breakdown tells its own story about the gaps in the data infrastructure that tourism policymakers have been working with.

The National Travel and Tourism Office’s (NTTO) Survey of International Air Travelers (SIAT) serves as the authoritative foundation for these findings. Conducted continuously on a monthly basis since January 1983, the SIAT forms the primary data source for these economic estimates.

To ensure a comprehensive view of the industry’s impact, this primary data is rigorously supplemented by Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) GDP and employment statistics, alongside the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages.

This multi-layered methodology provides a level of granularity previously unavailable, creating a robust economic roadmap. The resulting picture is one that tourism executives and government agencies will be parsing for years as they navigate the complexities of the modern global travel market.

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The Geography of Overseas Spending: Five States, More Than Half the Nation’s International Tourism Economy

The most immediate and arresting finding of the report is the degree of concentration at the top of the distribution. Five states — New York, California, Florida, Texas and Massachusetts — collectively received $99.7 billion in overseas visitor spending in 2024. That is 58.7% of the entire national total, generated by just five of the 55 states and territories covered by the report.

Those same five states supported more than 502,000 workers through overseas visitor spending — 55.5% of all direct employment generated by international visitors across the whole country.

The individual state-by-state picture is equally striking.

New York led the nation in every single metric tracked by the report: overseas arrivals, visitor spending and related employment. In 2024, New York welcomed 9.8 million overseas visitors who collectively spent $32.1 billion and supported 156,840 jobs. No other state came close.

California followed with 6.96 million overseas visitors spending $26.9 billion and supporting 132,670 jobs, making it the second-ranked state in both spending and employment terms.

Florida — the perennial challenger at the top of U.S. tourism rankings — recorded 8.86 million overseas visitors, $25.2 billion in spending and 124,970 jobs supported. Florida’s visitor count actually exceeded California’s, but lower average spend per visitor (reflecting a different mix of market segments and activities) placed it third in total spending terms.

Texas welcomed 2.09 million overseas visitors who spent $7.9 billion and supported 45,620 jobs. Massachusetts rounded out the top five with 1.5 million overseas visitors, $7.7 billion in spending and 42,250 jobs.

Beyond the top five, a further tier of states generated more than $1 billion in overseas visitor spending: Hawaii ($7.5 billion, 35,170 jobs), Illinois ($5.7 billion, 31,250 jobs), Nevada ($5.2 billion, 25,550 jobs) and the District of Columbia ($4.0 billion, 18,410 jobs). In total, overseas visitors spent more than $1 billion in 26 individual states and U.S. territories, and supported more than 10,000 jobs in 20 individual states.

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The Visitor Profile: Who Is Coming, Where They Come From, and What They Spend

The report’s data sits alongside a detailed visitor profile picture constructed through the SIAT. The average overseas visitor to the United States in 2024 had a combined annual household income of $88,319, stayed 17.5 nights and spent $1,802 whilst in the country. That spending profile — close to $1,800 per trip from visitors staying an average of nearly 18 nights — underlines the high-value nature of the overseas visitor segment compared to domestic day-trippers or short-break travellers.

One of the most analytically interesting elements of the NTTO report is its explanation of why the employment supported per dollar of overseas visitor spending differs significantly between states. This is not a peripheral observation. For tourism ministers, DMO leaders and state economic development agencies, it goes to the heart of how different destinations convert international visitor spending into local jobs and incomes.

The report identifies three primary drivers of variation: labour intensity, labour productivity and labour costs.

States where visitors allocate a higher proportion of their spending to food services and education — both inherently labour-intensive sectors — generate more jobs per dollar spent than states where spending is weighted towards shopping or other less labour-intensive activities. This has direct implications for how destinations think about the mix of experiences they develop and promote. An international visitor spending $500 on a restaurant-heavy culinary tour of a city’s food market generates different employment outcomes than the same $500 spent on luxury retail.

Labour productivity and wage levels introduce a further layer of complexity. States with large urban centres and major tourism attractions generally have higher labour productivity and higher labour costs — meaning each dollar of visitor spending, whilst supporting higher-paid jobs, supports fewer of them by headcount. Nevada, where per-dollar job generation is relatively low compared to its spending total, illustrates this dynamic: the gaming and hospitality economy is high-revenue but also increasingly capital-intensive in terms of visitor-facing infrastructure.

For DMOs developing economic impact arguments to make to state legislatures and city councils, this is critical context. Raw spending figures tell one story; jobs supported per tourism dollar tell another, often more politically resonant one — particularly in states where labour market concerns are prominent.

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The States Being Left Behind — and the Opportunity That Represents

The concentration of overseas visitor spending in a small number of coastal and gateway states is well understood in the tourism industry. What the NTTO report does, for the first time in 29 years, is quantify precisely how striking that concentration is — and by extension, how significant the opportunity for redistribution remains.

A handful of figures from the lower end of the distribution make the point starkly. Mississippi received 49,000 overseas visitors who generated $162 million in spending and 1,180 jobs. Montana attracted 58,000 overseas visitors spending $179 million and supporting 1,160 jobs. North Dakota recorded just 21,000 overseas visitors, $109 million in spending and 860 jobs.

These are not insignificant figures for those individual state economies, but they represent a fraction of the overseas visitor spending captured by the gateway states — and, more pertinently, they represent the scale of the gap between where overseas visitor spending currently concentrates and where it could, with the right infrastructure, marketing and connectivity, flow more broadly.

The NTTO report notes that estimates for states marked with an asterisk — the majority of states outside the top tier — may be subject to reduced reliability due to small sample sizes of fewer than 100 survey respondents. That data quality limitation is itself an indicator of the low volume of overseas visitors to many states: the survey cannot generate robust samples where visitor flows are thin. Improving the volume and quality of overseas visitation to currently under-visited states is therefore not only an economic opportunity but also a data challenge that compounds over time.

Brand USA, the national destination marketing organisation, has made the dispersion of tourism spending beyond gateway cities a stated strategic priority. “At Brand USA, we are proud to showcase 12 states in this latest effort to increase legitimate inbound travel and build economic opportunity at the local level,” said Fred Dixon, President and Chief Executive Officer of Brand USA, speaking earlier this year. The NTTO report provides the empirical baseline against which progress on that agenda can now be measured, state by state.

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The Competitive Context: Record Numbers, But Headwinds on the Horizon

The 2024 state-level spending data arrives at a pivotal moment, as the broader U.S. tourism economy simultaneously celebrates historic performance and confronts intensifying competitive pressures.

According to the U.S. Travel Association’s Fall 2025 update—released on October 1, 2025—total international arrivals to the United States are projected to decline 6.3% in 2025. This forecast estimates a drop from 72.4 million visitors in 2024 to 67.9 million in 2025, marking the first year-over-year contraction in inbound travel since the 2020 pandemic onset.

The association cited several systemic barriers as primary drivers for this downturn, including outdated infrastructure systems, excessive visa wait times, and evolving travel deterrents. These structural factors are increasingly diverting global travelers toward competing international destinations, threatening billions in potential spending. As the industry looks toward a major events cycle starting in 2026, these findings serve as a critical warning that U.S. market share remains vulnerable despite domestic resilience.

The association’s statement was pointed: “The latest forecast signals both opportunity and warning for America’s travel economy. While domestic travel is holding steady, the continued decline in international visitors threatens billions in spending and thousands of jobs. The next decade can be one of extraordinary growth, but only if we act decisively. Outdated systems, excessive visa wait times and new travel deterrents are driving global visitors elsewhere. The U.S. must lead by modernising travel infrastructure, streamlining entry processes and sending a clear message: America is open for business.”

The WTTC Position: A Record-Breaking Market at a Crossroads

While Brand USA focuses on marketing, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) notes that the U.S. is currently breaking all-time economic records. According to the Council’s latest 2026 data, the sector now boosts the U.S. economy by $2.63 trillion and supports over 20 million jobs.

However, WTTC leadership, including President & CEO Gloria Guevara, warns that the nation stands at a critical juncture. Despite the record GDP contribution, international visitor spend remains the “weak link,” still struggling to match 2019 peaks. The Council’s advocacy remains clear: a strategic focus on visa processing speeds, border staffing, and reducing entry queues is vital to ensuring the U.S. captures the full economic potential of the upcoming FIFA World Cup and the Olympics.

These warnings sit in instructive tension with the $169.8 billion headline from the NTTO report. The 2024 data represents a strong baseline — but it was generated in conditions that may be harder to sustain or build upon without deliberate policy action on entry infrastructure. For tourism executives and DMO leaders planning their strategies for 2026 and beyond, the NTTO’s state-level data provides a foundation; the competitive environment provides the urgency.

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The Coming Surge: What 2026 and Beyond Could Mean for State Economies

There is, however, a compelling counter-narrative to the short-term headwinds — and it is rooted in the event calendar.

The NTTO forecast projects that total international arrivals to the United States will surpass pre-pandemic 2019 levels in 2026, driven in part by a cluster of major global events. The 2026 FIFA World Cup, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, will bring matches to 11 U.S. cities and generate an estimated surge in short-term international arrivals with a profile — high spending, multiple-destination itineraries — that is exactly what state-level tourism economies need to diversify their overseas visitor base.

The America 250 celebrations mark the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence and are expected to be a major draw for heritage, cultural and diaspora tourism segments internationally. The Route 66 centennial adds a further dimension, with itinerary-based road-trip tourism — dispersed by definition across multiple states — offering particular potential for the inland and rural states that currently capture relatively modest shares of overseas visitor spending.

Brand USA’s Fred Dixon has been characteristically direct about the stakes:

“There’s never been a better time to explore the beauty and energy of the USA, which continues to be the world’s most aspirational long-haul travel destination. With the ‘America the Beautiful’ campaign, we’re sending a clear message: the USA is open for business and ready to welcome international travellers. We’re confident this effort will spark renewed interest and deepen connections with audiences around the world as we build momentum toward a historic 2026.”

According to Brand USA’s own published figures, the organisation’s marketing efforts in fiscal year 2024 generated 1.6 million incremental international visitors and nearly $6 billion in additional visitor spending, supported close to 80,000 American jobs and produced $1.7 billion in federal, state and local tax revenue — contributing to nearly $13 billion in total economic impact across the country. The organisation’s new America the Beautiful campaign, rolling out across nine priority markets including the United Kingdom, India, Brazil, Australia and Japan, is designed to capitalise on that momentum and accelerate it into 2026.

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What the Report Means for Tourism Agencies, DMOs and Travel Executives

For the professionals whose work is most directly implicated by this data — state tourism directors, DMO chief executives, national tourism agency officials and travel industry leaders — the NTTO report’s release opens several lines of practical inquiry that were not previously possible to pursue with the same rigour.

For the first time in 29 years, it is possible to benchmark a state’s overseas visitor economy against every other state in the union, using a consistent federal methodology. A state tourism director can now answer — with real data — questions about how their state’s per-visitor spending compares to neighbouring states, what share of the national overseas tourism economy they capture, and how many jobs per dollar of overseas visitor spending their state generates relative to states with similar visitor profiles.

For investors and developers considering tourism infrastructure — hotels, attractions, convention facilities, transport links — the state-level spending and employment data provides a granular lens on where the returns from international visitor-facing investment are most demonstrably being generated, and where the potential for market deepening is greatest.

For federal and state policymakers, the employment data carries a direct political argument: overseas visitor spending supported 906,000 American jobs in 2024. That figure, distributed across states and territories, translates into constituency-level workforce impacts that carry weight in budget discussions, visa policy debates and aviation connectivity decisions.

And for DMOs making the case for their marketing budgets — always a challenge in environments where return on investment must be demonstrated — the new NTTO data provides the benchmark numbers against which future performance can now be measured. If a state tourism board increases overseas visitor arrivals by 10% over three years, the job-creation and spending implications of that growth can now be modelled and communicated with federal data behind them.

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A Benchmark for the Next Three Decades

The last time the NTTO produced a comparable state-by-state assessment of overseas visitor economic impact, the internet was barely a commercial proposition, the term “destination marketing” had yet to enter common usage in many state government offices, and the idea of a traveller booking a holiday from their telephone would have seemed science fiction. In the 29 years since that 1997 report, the U.S. tourism industry has been navigating without a complete federal map of where overseas visitor spending flows and settles.

That gap has now been closed. The 2024 Overseas Visitor Impact on State Economies report is, in a very real sense, a reset of the baseline — the first comprehensive, state-level picture of America’s overseas visitor economy in a generation. Whether the sector uses it to make the strategic arguments for investment, policy reform and marketing ambition that the moment demands will determine whether the numbers in the next edition look better, or worse, than these.

The data says $169.8 billion and 906,000 jobs. The question for governments, DMOs and travel executives is: what comes next?

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The 2024 Overseas Visitor Impact on State Economies report was published in April 2026 by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), part of the International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. The full report and state-level data tables are available at trade.gov.

Tourism Reporter provides strategic insight into the global tourism economy—where policy, investment, and traveller behaviour intersect.