US Inbound Demand Weakens Again in December 2025

The National Travel and Tourism Office reported that international visitation to the US declined again in December 2025, marking the eighth straight month of year-over-year decreases. The data highlights continued softness in inbound demand, even as overall international travel volumes remain above pre-pandemic levels.

Overall international air traffic

Total international air passenger enplanements to and from the US reached 23.2 million in December. This represents a slight decline of 0.1 percent compared with December 2024, reaching 109.9 percent of December 2019 levels.

Decline in non-US visitor arrivals

Arrivals by non-US citizens fell more sharply. Total non-US visitor arrivals dropped to 5.3 million in December 2025, down 2.9 percent compared with the same month last year. This figure equals 93.8 percent of December 2019 volumes, indicating that inbound recovery remains incomplete.

Overseas arrivals totaled 3.2 million visitors, reaching 92 percent of pre-pandemic levels. This marked an improvement from 85 percent in November 2025. However, overseas visitation was still down 2.5 percent compared with December 2024.

Strong outbound US travel

In contrast, outbound travel by US citizens remained robust. US residents took 6.9 million international air trips in December, an increase of 3.2 percent year over year.

Outbound demand significantly exceeded pre-pandemic benchmarks, standing 30.3 percent above November 2019 levels, underscoring continued strength in leisure and international travel spending by Americans.

Key international markets and US airports

The busiest international travel markets for combined arrivals and departures in December were

• Mexico with 4 million passengers (down 0.1 percent year over year),
• Canada with 2.4 million (down 11.9 percent),
• the UK with 1.6 million (down 5.6 percent),
• the Dominican Republic with 994,000 (up 6.8 percent), and
• Japan with 928,000 (up 8.9 percent).

New York JFK remained the busiest international gateway with 2.8 million passengers in December. Miami followed with 2.3 million, Los Angeles with 2.1 million, and both San Francisco and Newark handled 1.4 million international passengers each.

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

Photo by Invonto on Unsplash