Survey of International Air Travelers

The U.S. Department of Commerce assists in the collection, analysis, and dissemination of tourism data. The Survey of International Air Travelers program provides source data required to: (1) estimate international travel and passenger fare exports, imports and the trade balance for the United States, (2) comply with the U.S. Travel Promotion Act of 2009 (Pub. L. 111-145), collect a one percent sample of inbound travelers, analyze and report information to government and industry stakeholders, and support the increase of U.S. exports, (3) to comply with travel and tourism related acts to collect and publish comprehensive international travel and tourism, statistics and other marketing information, and (4) support the continuation of the Travel & Tourism Satellite Accounts for the United States, which provide the only spending and employment figures for the industry, and (5) to support the goals of objectives of the 2022 National Travel & Tourism Strategy. Scope: The Survey program contains the core data that is collected monthly, via the survey instrument from passenger respondents departing from U.S. international gateway airports on randomly selected flights (U.S. or foreign national carriers). Benefits: Survey data is analyzed and communicated by NTTO with other government agencies, associations and businesses that share the same objective of increasing U.S. international travel exports. The Survey assists NTTO in assessing the economic impact of international travel on state and local economies, providing visitation estimates, key market intelligence, and identifying traveler and trip characteristics. The Survey program provides the only available estimates of nonresident visitation to the states and cities within the United States, as well as U.S. resident travel abroad.

The latest form for Survey of International Air Travelers expires 2027-11-30 and can be found here.