Here’s a sampling of some of June 2016’s compelling findings from the U.S. Travel research team

Each month, the U.S. Travel Association sends its members the U.S. Travel Outlook, which provides insight into the current state of the travel economy and related industry trends, plus other relevant data and information on the travel and tourism sector.

Mixed Signals on Americans’ Feelings About the Economy

It’s hard to tell whether recent surges in consumer spending will continue into the summer months. U.S. consumer confidence gauges last month showed uncertainty about how Americans feel about the economy overall.

For example, the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index declined further in May, indicating a lack of confidence in the U.S. economy and no expectations of change in the months ahead. On the other hand, the University of Michigan reported that its Consumer Sentiment Index registered at an 11-month high in May. The Gallup Economic Index, meanwhile, was flat last month. How confident American consumers actually are—and how that will change in the coming months—is really anyone’s guess.

Travel Exports Fall Slightly, But Stay Strong Comparatively

After growing four out of the last six previous months, travel exports fell by $352 million in April to $20.9 billion, amid a slight rise in U.S. exports overall. However, despite lagging a little behind other exports in April, through the first four months of the year travel exports increased by four percent compare to the same period in 2015. By contrast, other U.S. exports declined 6.2 percent during the same span.

Where in America Do International Visitors Want to Travel?

With IPW 2016 still on our minds—not to mention the recent Brexit referendum—the latest international travel search data is especially interesting to us.

The U.S. Travel Barometer is a monthly, forward-looking, first-of-its-kind report that tracks 30 billion global online lodging searches from 5,000 consumer travel websites to determine trends and changes to consumer interest in travel to and within the U.S.

According to the May U.S. Travel Barometer, the Mideast region of the U.S. (which includes New York and Washington, D.C.) continued to dominate international lodging searches (people outside the U.S. researching hotels for destination travel), capturing 36 percent of searches. The Southeast (which includes Florida and Louisiana, and recently hosted IPW 2016 in New Orleans) followed at 27 percent. The Far West (which includes California, Washington and Oregon) gained some share, now representing 22 percent of international searches.

A deeper dive into the data available in the June 2016 U.S. Travel Outlook—which includes the latest data releases on travel employment, domestic travel searches and more—is online here.

U.S. Travel Association members receive the full U.S. Travel Outlook, plus a myriad of other cutting-edge research reports with information relevant to the travel industry. Learn more about the benefits of becoming a member here—or simply continue to enjoy a small taste of U.S. Travel’s research insight each month here, with the Research Round-up.

Source:-U.S. Travel Association