We now predict crowds beyond Europe’s borders. We are very excited to have added four major tourist destinations in the United States. Daily crowd predictions for New York City, Miami, Los Angeles and Chicago are now available on our website and through our API.
All four American cities are released as beta. That is because we are still learning about American travel trends. We had to use different data than what we can use for European destinations. For the US market we look at hotel occupancy rates, domestic school vacations, events, cruise ship traffic and other data sets that we are able to access.
New York City
New York City is the United States´ number one travel destination. The big apple is receiving a growing numbers of tourists each year. According to the city´s tourism marketing agency, 2019 will set a new record with an estimated total of 67 million tourists visiting New York.
Most tourists visiting New York City are Americans. Domestic tourism for New York is incredibly important as it accounts for 79% of all trips into the city, NYC & Company reports. Following domestic travelers are tourists from the United Kingdom, China and Canada. The city is actively trying to diversify seasonal patterns by promoting events outside peak season such as NYC Restaurant Week or NYC Broadway Week.
New York City is a year round destination with tourists visiting the city each month. Some months are busier than others. Peak season starts when schools around the world start their vacations in summer. Other busy periods are around the Christmas holidays while relatively slow months are the cold winter months January and February.
Chicago
Voted the best large city to visit for three years in a row by readers of Condé Nast, Chicago is one of the biggest tourist destination in the United States. With 58 million visitors in 2018, an increase of about 2 million tourists compared to the year before, the city is attracting lots of (mostly) domestic tourists. To deal with growing demand the city is currently developing new hotels at high speed.
Tourism in Chicago is not evenly spread over the year. The winter cold makes Chicago an unattractive destination to visit during winter. The city is therefore relatively quiet in these cold winter months and very crowded during peak season: June to August.
Miami
Miami is a major tourist destination in south Florida. The city and its beaches attract tourists from around the world. To predict crowds we look at average occupancy rates of hotels, cruise ship traffic and much more. Miami is most popular in winter when Florida’s great weather offers an escape for those living in the colder north. In 2019 Miami was visited by a record high of 16.5 million overnight tourists as well as about 6.8 million day trippers. International tourism in Miami is relatively big compared to other destinations in the US.
In 2018, the International overnight visitor market experienced the highest rate of growth, +4.1% 8 compared to 2017. International visitors comprised 35% of the overnight market, with 5.8 million visitors. Latin America remained a key feeder market in 2018, generating the top three countries of origin for overnight international visitors into Greater Miami: Brazil, Colombia and Argentina. Combined, these three countries delivered more than 20% of the international overnight visitors. Similarly, Latin America as a region represented 45% of the total overnight visitor.
Domestic overnight visitors (not including Florida Residents) in 2018 represented 38% of the total overnight visitor market, with 6.2 million traveling to the Greater Miami area and representing 34% of visitor expenditures. New York City remained the largest domestic overnight market, contributing more than 1.2 million visitors or 20% of the total domestic overnight market.
Los Angeles
Our first destination on the west coast is Los Angeles. The second most populated city in the country attracts over 50 million visitors per year. Most visitors to Los Angeles are domestic tourists (42.5 million). Arrivals from outside the US account for just 7.5 million tourists. According to Discover Los Angeles, the city’s tourism marketing agency, international arrivals are growing faster (+3.6%) than domestic arrivals (3%).
After a slight decrease in 2017, visitation from Mexico in 2018 scored its highest total ever with 1.8 million visitors, a 4 percent increase. China recorded an all-time high 1.2 million visitors, making Los Angeles the number one ranked U.S. city for Chinese travelers (6.9 percent increase, the largest net gain among all international markets). Other international markets recording their highest visitation totals ever in 2018 include: Canada with 780,000 (4.5 percent increase); U.K. with 382,000 (3 percent increase); Japan with 349,000 (2.5 percent increase); Scandinavia with 190,000 (3.9 percent increase); and India with 130,000 (5.1 percent increase).
