The U.S. Department of Commerce announces the top states, cities, and territories benefiting from overseas travelers to the United States. In 2008, overseas arrivals to the United States posted a 6 percent growth rate. For the sixth straight year New York State was the top state destination visited by overseas travelers. California held the second position. Florida remained in the third position, but gained ground as it realized double-digit growth for the second straight year. Nevada, Hawaii, Illinois, and Massachusetts followed the top 3 states visited. Double-digit increases were experienced in 2008 by seven of the 21 states/territories in which estimates are available. New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania all set records for overseas visitation in 2008.

The top cities visited by overseas travelers in 2008 were: New York City, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, Honolulu, Washington, DC, Chicago and Boston. Of the 20 city visitation estimates issued, nine posted double-digit increases. New York City continued its top spot and has posted growth for the fifth straight year. New York City, Chicago, and Philadelphia set new visitation records in 2008, and only three cities registered declines.

This year, the Office of Travel & Tourism Industries (OTTI) was able to report  more destinations visited estimates based on an annual sample of overseas and Mexican air travelers, the largest sample since 1999. Also, OTTI worked with several destinations to improve data collected at their local airport, and improved the weighting.  The sample increases and other improvements enable better analyses of the shifts occurring in the U.S. international marketplace. These changes, in turn, impact the destinations visited.

Destination visitation estimates are publicly released for 21 states and 20 cities, a slight increase over the number of estimates issued in 2007. The limited estimates for destinations visited are due to OTTI’s statistical policy implemented in 2006. The policy requires a minimum of 400 survey respondents for a public estimate. This is to help ensure the quality of the estimates. Changes in a state or city’s visitation estimate vary from year-to-year because of the influence in the country visitation changes and shifts in the characteristics of the overseas visitors. For example, the decrease in travel to Hawaii/Honolulu is due principally to an overall decline in travel by Japanese visitors which account for a major part of Hawaii's foreign visitors.

Likewise, other changes in key traveler characteristics may also influence visitation, such as, business versus leisure travel, the number of destinations visited, and/or the traveler’s use of transportation within the country. In 2008, some of the key shifts in the traveler characteristics that occurred compared to 2007 and over the past several years that can impact the destinations visited include: 1) leisure travel as a purpose of trip increased for the first time in three years compared to the decline in business travelers and those visiting friends and relatives; 2) a decline in the market share of visitors using a travel package to visit the for the fourth straight year; 3) a decrease in the percent of travelers who only visit one place while within the country, after six straight years of increases; 4) a shift in the transportation used while in the U.S., to more rental cars and rail between cities.