US Inbound Travel Still Down While Americans Travel Abroad More

The National Travel and Tourism Office reported that inbound international travel to the US declined once again in January 2026. This marks the ninth consecutive month in which the country has experienced year-over-year decreases in international visitation.

The sustained downturn shows that the slowdown is far from temporary and is part of a broader cooling trend.

Air traffic volumes show mixed signals

Total international air passenger enplanements between the US and foreign destinations reached 21.4 million in January 2026. That figure represents a 0.5 percent decrease compared with January 2025.

Despite the slight year-over-year dip, overall traffic volumes were still 107.6 percent of what they were in January 2019, before the pandemic disrupted global travel.

Foreign visitor arrivals remain below pre-pandemic levels

Non-US citizen air arrivals into the United States totaled 4.6 million in January 2026. This reflects a 4.8 percent decline compared with the same month last year.

More notably, inbound international arrivals have only recovered to 87.4 percent of January 2019 levels, showing that the US continues to lag behind its pre-pandemic performance in attracting overseas travelers.

Outbound US travel remains strong

While inbound travel softened, outbound trips by US citizens continued to increase.

In January 2026, 5 million US citizens departed by air for foreign destinations. That represents a 1.4 percent increase compared with January 2025. More strikingly, outbound volumes exceeded January 2019 levels by 26.9 percent, highlighting a demand among US travelers for trips abroad.

Key international markets and US gateways

Air passenger traffic between the US and other countries was led by

• Mexico with 3.8 million travelers (down 0.1 percent year over year),
• Canada with 2.2 million passengers (down 11.9 percent),
• the United Kingdom with 1.3 million passengers (down 5.6 percent)
• the Dominican Republic with 997,000 travelers (up 6.8 percent), and
• Japan with 893,000 passengers (up 8.9 percent).

Among US airports, the busiest international gateways were New York (JFK) with 2.5 million passengers, Miami (MIA) with 2.3 million, Los Angeles (LAX) with 1.9 million, San Francisco (SFO) with 1.3 million, and Atlanta (ATL) with 1.2 million.

See reports from previous months in 2025 for more insights: December, November, October, September.

Photo by Harri P on Unsplash