Posted on: Wednesday, June 5, 2002

UK tops Japan in U.S. arrivals

Associated Press

It will be three more years before Japanese visitor arrivals to the United States are expected to reach levels recorded in 2000, according to a recently released travel report. Japanese visitor arrivals dropped 19 percent in 2001, but is expected to gain 23 percent by 2005, according to the International Trade Administration Office of Tourism Industries.

The projected Japanese visitor arrivals to the United States in 2005 is 5,064,000, compared with 5,061,000 in 2000. Visitors from the United Kingdom overtook Japan as the largest source of overseas arrivals, the report said. Visitor arrivals to the United States should see strong growth through 2005 from other Asian markets, including China (41 percent), Korea (36 percent), Taiwan (33 percent) and Hong Kong (28 percent), the office said.