A new report by the World Economic Forum (2025) has named America as one of the best places to visit in the world, highlighting its natural beauty, rich culture, and strong focus on sustainability and tourism — making it one of the best places to visit in usa.
Although the travel industry struggled in the past few years, tourism is finally making a comeback. By 2024, the number of international tourists will reach the same level as before the pandemic. But challenges like high prices, climate change, and global conflict still affect the travel industry.
However, some countries are dealing with these issues better than others. The Travel and Tourism Development Index 2024 examines many factors such as safety, transportation, nature, culture, and how well a country supports tourism.
This year, countries like Spain, Japan, France and Australia made it to the top five, but the United States remained at the number one spot. The U.S. ranked highly for its modern infrastructure, easy travel between cities, and amazing variety of natural and cultural places to visit.
“America has it all—beautiful scenery, cultural richness, and systems that make travel easy and fun for tourists,” says New York University tourism expert Anna Abelson.
This infrastructure reinforces enormous spending power. Before the pandemic, international visitors spent $180 billion in the U.S. in 2019, generating nearly $2 trillion in economic output, according to the United States Travel Association’s (USTA) biennial U.S. travel forecast.
To put that in perspective, France – the world’s most visited country, which received 90 million visitors in 2019 compared to 79.4 million in the US – took in around $61bn (€56bn) in international tourism this year. While the number has dropped by $180bn during the pandemic, the USTA notes that visitor levels are set to recover by 2025.
Compared to other countries, the US federal government provides extensive support for travel and tourism, particularly in maintaining and regulating a strong airport infrastructure and airline industry. Even so, experts say that much of the country’s travel and tourism success can be attributed to the diversity of its cities – both large and small – and the time and financial investment they have made in developing long-term sustainable tourism projects.
Wide appeal
With big budgets and staffs, America’s biggest cities have made a huge push to stay on the minds and maps of international travelers – and those big bets are paying off.
“For many years, major cities in the US like Las Vegas and New York have worked hard to promote themselves to tourists,” said Taryn Sher, who works in public relations for travel cities like Greenville and Macon. “They use strong, memorable slogans that people don’t forget. This kind of clever advertising is sure to bring more tourists to these cities.”
America’s global mega-events — think Coachella, the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras — also draw visitors from around the world, Scher says. The vast US National Parks system, with its 63 parks and 54 million acres (almost the size of Great Britain), cannot be overstated in terms of its global appeal.
“The United States has more diverse scenery and cooler cities than any other country in the world,” said Tim Liefel, author of The World’s Cheapest Destinations. “Places like New Orleans, New York City, Santa Fe, Alaska, and Florida are very different from each other—sometimes more than entire countries!”
Local Hustle Behind America’s Global Tourism Boom
Whether large or small, the American travel industry does not view tourism as zero-sum.
“One of the main reasons the travel industry does so well in the United States is because local, regional and state tourism groups work together as a team,” said Daniel Borja, president of Visit Conejo Valley.
Visit California recently launched a campaign called “The Ultimate Playground” to showcase the state’s recreational outdoor, cultural and health-related activities, Danielle Borja explains. The campaign has also allowed local partners, such as Visit Conejo Valley, to share their goodies — like the new Star Wars exhibit at the Ronald Reagan Library.
In the US, tour groups often work with private businesses, such as restaurants or attractions, to help grow the industry. In some countries, government regulations can cause problems between public and private tour groups, but in the US, this problem is minor. This good teamwork is one of the reasons why tourism there is strong.
Sher also noted how the rise of U.S. cities that have traditionally received few international tourists has seen an increase in tourist numbers. “More recently, Tampa, Savannah, Cincinnati, Indianapolis [and] Louisville have found a way to evolve their messaging to drive brand awareness and do so in an aggressive but strategic way,” he said.
“With 20 years of experience in the travel industry, Scher believes America will continue to grow in tourism as each city and state focuses on better promoting itself through smart marketing.”
“We’ve seen a big increase in interest in smaller and less well-known places,” said Scher. “These places became popular during the pandemic because people wanted to avoid crowds. Now, smart people know that tourism can make good money.”
“Investing in tourism doesn’t bring immediate results, but places like Charleston and the Napa Valley have grown through long-term planning. More tourists means more people spending money at local restaurants, shops and hotels,” said Sher. “Every dollar a visitor spends helps the local economy, creates jobs, and creates new opportunities for the entire community.”
How USA Turned Smart Strategy into Tourist Gold
Liefel believes that the success of US tourism comes from hard work, good organization and clear communication.
“U.S. tourism boards respond to journalists, they follow up on marketing campaigns, they go to conferences to improve their work and they look for people to collaborate with,” he said. “They look at ROI [return on investment] and what’s working so they can improve their campaigns next year. They benchmark and see what others are achieving. They regularly look outside their borders and aren’t satisfied with marketing based on a captive domestic traveler.”
Leffel discusses the growth of the annual IPW conference, one of the largest travel trade shows for visitors to the U.S. It helps generate billions of dollars by tracking sales of U.S. travel products, such as hotels, attractions, and attractions.
Abelson points out that visitor bureaus and destination management organizations in the U.S. have strong information centers that have a good online presence. “Training and education for tourism workers is improving based on the needs and trends of the industry,” he said.
The pandemic has accelerated the use of travel technology, such as room service robots, and new technologies such as AI are expected to change the way people plan and book travel. The US is generally ahead of other countries when it comes to adopting new technologies and taking risks. Training has also improved with the cooperation of organizations such as Brand USA and the USTA, which help promote the US as a top travel destination and share information about visa and admissions rules.
The United States has never been known to operate quietly or on a small scale, and when it comes to tourism, it has worked in its favor. Leffel points out that when the US starts a trend, it tends to continue until it’s everywhere. For example, check out wine, craft beer, coffee, museums, concerts and activities for children in cities. “We don’t stop until we have as many or better options than anyone else,” she says.
