Travel spend grows, but at a slower rate
Travel and tourism spend decelerated in the first quarter of 2015, official figures show.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reports first-quarter travel spend increased at an annual rate of 2%, substantially down on the 2014 fourth-quarter figure of 4.9%.
By comparison, real gross domestic product (GDP) turned down, decreasing 0.7% (second estimate) in the first quarter after increasing 2.2%.
Overall growth in prices for travel and tourism goods and services continued to decline in the first quarter of 2015, decreasing 9.1% following a decrease of 4.7% (revised) in the fourth quarter.
The continued decline was mainly attributable to a large decrease in ‘all other transportation-related commodities’, which includes gasoline; this commodity group decreased 33.4% in the first quarter after decreasing 23.5% in the fourth quarter.
Employment in the travel and tourism industries decelerated, increasing 2.3% in the first quarter of 2015 after increasing 2.9 percent (revised) in the fourth quarter.
This marks the 20th consecutive quarter of employment growth in the travel and tourism industries.
Total tourism-related output was $1.6 trillion in the first quarter of 2015. It consisted of $905.4 billion (58%) of direct tourism spending and $663.2 billion (42%) of indirect tourism-related spending.
Lisa
Lisa joined Travel Weekly nearly 25 years ago as technology reporter and then sailed around the world for a couple of years as cruise correspondent, before becoming deputy editor. Now freelance, Lisa writes for various print and web publications, edits Corporate Traveller’s client magazine, Gateway, and works on the acclaimed Remembering Wildlife series of photography books, which raise awareness of nature’s most at-risk species and helps to fund their protection.
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