The most popular regions of California, New York and Florida enjoyed a better-than-expected performance last year, bolstering hopes for 2018 despite early bookings plunging by 20% among German travellers, according to research by GfK.
New York is in a bullish mood after predictions of a 300,000 fall in international visitors failed to materialise in 2017.
“Preliminary figures indicate that overseas visitors fell by 100,000, though we think the final figures will be less as the fourth quarter was stronger than anticipated,” said Christopher Heywood, NYC & Company senior vice-president global communications.
He predicted that the market would recover this year, adding:
“The politics is something we are concerned about, but as time goes on people are becoming desensitised about it.”
Visit California is similarly optimistic after seeing increased demand from the UK and France so far this year. Having recorded a jump in German visitors in 2017, it also expects this to continue.
