Annual Tourism Employment Up for First Time since 2000

Here is a bit of encouraging news, which hopefully the bombing incidents in London do not squash. I am seeing growth in the tourism activity in many of the areas in which I am working. How is tourism doing in your area?

Total sales of US tourism-related goods and services grew 11 percent (seasonally adjusted at annual rates in current dollars) to $998.2 billion in the first quarter of 2005 according to preliminary data released by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. Following a large decline in 2001, tourism sales have steadily increased in each of the last three years, growing 6.8 percent in 2004.

Newly available data on tourism employment indicate that total tourism-related employment grew 0.3 percent in 2004, the first annual increase since 2000. Total tourism-related employment consisted of 5,424 thousand direct tourism-related jobs, and 2,505 thousand indirect tourism-related jobs.

In the first quarter of 2005, total tourism-related sales consisted of $571.3 billion of direct tourism sales – sales of goods and services sold directly to visitors, and $426.9 billion of indirect tourism sales – sales of goods and services used to produce what visitors buy. The highest sales growth was in ‘passenger air transportation’ at 20.4 percent. Sales of 'recreation and entertainment' grew 14.5 percent, and sales of 'traveler accommodations’ grew 14.1 percent.

More from the Bureau of Economic Analysis here.