The number of foreign tourists to the United States has recovered only 73% from pre-pandemic levels so far this year, according to the United States Travel Association (USTA), and many retailers that rely on foreign shoppers Businessmen are struggling to make a living.
The USTA predicts that U.S. retailers will suffer losses of $6 billion. retail spending In 2023.
U.S. retailers are suffering big losses as retail sales decline due to the slow return of overseas consumers and online shopping.
loss after loss
Before the pandemic, 21% of the money foreign travelers spent in the United States was on shopping at U.S. retailers.it almost totals 25 billion dollars In retail sales. In fact, UTSA reports that more than 80% of international travelers cite shopping as their favorite activity while in the United States.
Christopher Falvey is Unique NOLAA souvenir, curio, and antique store located in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana. “Certainly, there is a lot less international travel than there used to be,” he says. We are currently approximately 21% short of our growth goals. Falvey said the expected slowdown in growth is “completely related to the pandemic,” noting that “everyone is from Texas, then Florida, then the rest of the United States, and then from outside the United States.” Some of them are from just a few places,” he said.
highest spender
For U.S. retailers, Asians are prime customers from a financial standpoint. In 2019, Japanese people were the biggest spenders in the U.S., spending about $2.8 billion on retail. This corresponds to approximately 35% of the Japanese population. travel spending. China ranks just below Japan, with Chinese tourists spending a total of $2.6 billion at U.S. retailers.
According to Falvey, many of the international visitors to Unique NOLA come from Australia. South Americans and Europeans are also fairly common, but Asians are the least visited.
Until May 2023, COVID-19 restrictions were in place for foreign nationals seeking to enter the United States, preventing tourist dollars from going into retailers’ pockets. On May 12, the Department of Homeland Security officially canceled Under the latest COVID-19 regulations, non-U.S. travelers are no longer required to present proof of vaccination at any point of entry. Unfortunately, the recovery is not progressing as quickly as retailers need and hope.
another problem
U.S. Travel Association statistics about the slow recovery in tourist retail spending are raising eyebrows among some in the industry.
Owned by Heidi Theis Benvenuto Travel Design Farm According to Steamboat Travel, a brick-and-mortar travel agency in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, her experience is that “more people are traveling internationally than before the lockdown, and they’re spending less money per trip.” It’s increasing. I don’t know of any travel companies that are doing less international travel than they were before the pandemic started.”
That begs the question. If the U.S. travel agency industry is booming, why don’t retailers seem to be reaping the benefits?
It probably has something to do with the rise of online shopping. According to Statista, total retail e-commerce sales worldwide are likely $5.7 trillion 2022. Amazon leads the world rankings for traffic from online retail websites. However, Amazon’s Chinese competitors Taobao and Tmall outperform Amazon in terms of total product value.
Mobile shopping: a double-edged sword
The availability of online shopping and the ease of purchasing from mobile smartphones could hurt America’s brick-and-mortar retailers even more. By 2022, approximately 70% of accesses to retail store websites around the world will be from smartphones, leading to the term m-commerce, or mobile commerce.
Some Americans prefer to use their laptops to shop online, but in China and South Korea, more than two-thirds of online sales are generated through m-commerce.Therefore, tourists from Asia would otherwise sunken money People who previously shopped in brick-and-mortar stores in the U.S. may now prefer window shopping once they arrive in the U.S., as they now have instant access to online shops.
result? International travelers may no longer place great importance on shopping in the United States. They want to focus more on the vacation itself. Theis points out that the customized luxury travel sector is experiencing the most growth. She describes the “modern agent” as “more service-oriented and able to accommodate all your needs.”[ing] For busy people who value their time and don’t just want to pay someone else to design their trip (to their specifications), they want a “personal travel assistant” to back them up while they travel. It is aimed at ”
Recover Tourist Dollars
Time will tell whether U.S. retailers can restore international sales to pre-pandemic levels and meet expected growth targets. Meanwhile, USTA’s sobering data suggests that brick-and-mortar retailers that rely on revenue from international tourists may need to focus on the online shopping sector to increase sales and profits. It might mean nothing.
This article was created by Media decisions Syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Laura is the co-founder of part of the journey, a blog that encourages self-guided travel, including for wheelchair users. She has spent most of her adult life overseas, starting with a three-year stint in the Peace Corps in Panama. When Laura isn’t creating her next article, she can be found befriending stray dogs while searching for her local vegetarian food.
