2008 visits from Sweden to the USA continue to grow

Overall figures from the U.S. Department of Commerce for October 2008 reflect a worldwide decrease of 2 percent over the same period last year.

The growth experience in the first 2 quarters of 2008 has softened, but Q3 still represents a 3% increase from 2007.

Year-to-date, USA arrivals are 43-million. Western Europe tracked well above average with a 5.7% increase versus 2007, accounting for almost one-half of all overseas arrivals. This is despite arrivals from the United Kingdom being down almost 5% in October. Visitor from the U.K. account for about 37 percent of all Western European arrivals. Year-to-date, France and Germany, the next two largest European markets, were up 27 percent and 19 percent respectively, continuing strong growth trends from 2007 and early 2008. For the ten month period to October 2008, Sweden traffic to the USA is up over 20% versus last year, to some 332,000 visitors. Of note, Sweden-USA traffic has grown month-over-month for 26 consecutive months, representing 40% improvement over 2006, and almost 60% since 2004.

This is remarkable sustained growth. In 2008, Sweden is the 18th top-producing country for tourism generation to the USA.