Theere is no indication if the data represents just tourists.
The U.S. Travel Association, the industry trade group, had noted that the United States’ share of global travel had declined from 2000 to 2010....
While the sheer number of visitors to the United States has risen over the last 10 years, the number of travelers worldwide has grown even more in that time. As a result, the United States’ share of the total travel market is down, to 11.2 percent in 2010 from 17.3 percent in 2000.
The argument that disses the concern of decline in travel by citing the number of absolute visitors misses the point that other things remaining equal, the percentage of travelelrs to the U.S. would not show such a drastic decline of 35%.
Following are the main factors at play--those responsible for +ve change are in black and those leading to a -ve change are in red.
- Increasing numbers of Americans with foreign born spouses leads to increased travel.
- A large number of IT workers imported from abroad.
- Behaviour of our immigration and customs, as well as TSA. The (mis) treatment is meted out to not just foreigners, but even to returning U.S. citizens perceived to be of targeted nationaliy/ethnicity.
- Declining share of U.S. economy as a percentage of world GDP. IN 2001, U.S. GDP accounted for 32.24% of world GDP and 20.78% in 2011-- a 35% decline in the share.
- As a corollary of the share of GDP, there has been an increase in share of world trade conducted by BRIC countries. I haven' got the data on how much the U.S. share has declined as a percentage of world trade.
The number of passports issued is pretty useless data that gives us no clear indication except that more people have applied for passports.