The latest numbers from the US government's Office of Travel and Tourism Industry (OTTI) show that overseas travel by Americans is growing in in all of the eight regions it has identified, with Central America, Middle East and Asia growing the fastest.
According to the latest numbers published by the OTTI, a total of 23 million US citizens traveled outside their country during the first five months of 2012, with 49 percent of them going to overseas locations and 51 percent traveling within North America.
Overseas travel was up overall by 9 percent with a total of 11.2 million travelers. The three most visited regions were Europe (17 percent) followed by the Caribbean (12 percent) and Asia (8 percent).
The fastest-growing destinations were Central America, the Middle East and Asia. During the first five months of the year, a total of 1 million US passengers visited Central America, 15 percent more compared to the same period in 2011.
US overseas travel to the Middle East was up by 14 percent, reaching a total of 595,000 travelers, followed by Asia, up by 14 percent with a total of 1.8 million travelers.
The other regional results were:
- Oceania, 228,000 travelers, up 10 percent
- Caribbean, 2.8 million travelers, up 9 percent
- South America, 658,000 travelers, up 7 percent
- Europe, 3.9 million travelers, up 6 percent
- Africa, 142,000 travelers, up 4 percent
US citizens' travel within North America was up by almost one percent with 8.5 million travelers going to Mexico and 3.3 million travelers going to Canada.