Skift Take

Despite the substantial progress the U.S. has made, the country's tourism industry still has a ways to go to fully rebound from the pandemic. Here are the reasons why.

Rashaad Jorden

The U.S. travel industry has made tremendous progress in its recovery from the pandemic. Bookings for hotels, car rentals and tour activities have risen almost 30% from last year for travel between between Memorial Day and Labor Day — numbers that are expected to increase, according to travel organization AAA.

However, the industry is struggling to fully recover in other important ways. Why? Ask Skift, our artificial intelligence chatbot, provided answers to the question, using information appearing in our daily news coverage, Skift Research and Airline Weekly.

Here are the responses Ask Skift produced, as well as what else you need to know.

Decrease in Chinese Tourists

Ask Skift said:

The U.S. tourism industry heavily relies on the influx of Chinese visitors. Prior to the pandemic, China was the U.S.'s fourth top market, having sent over 2.3 million tourists in 2019. Although China fully reopened its borders earlier this year after more than two years of restrictions, U.S. destinations have not seen Chinese tourists return in serious numbers. In fact, from May 2022 through April 2023, the U.S. welcomed over 540,000 Chinese travelers, which was an 81% drop from the same month in 2019. This significant decrease in Chinese tourists has hindered the U.S.'s tourism recovery.

What else you need to know: