Domestic Travel

Domestic tourism throughout the Americas is a lot larger than outbound tourism. The UNWTO Tourism Highlights show that most tourists visit destinations within their own region, with 171.5 million people undertaking domestic travel throughout the Americas in 2012 compared to 163.1 million international tourist arrivals in the same year (UNWTO, 2013). Taking the USA as the first example, Americans typically travel within their own region due to the low amount of annual holiday they receive. Generally, they are given 2 weeks holiday per annum (Burton, 1995) which they spend on numerous short weekend breaks rather than one long holiday. Another reason for a large amount of domestic travel is down to the fact that only 27% of Americans have passports (Boniface & Cooper, 2012). For the other 83% of the population, domestic travel is a trouble-free option as no borders need to be crossed. Canada tends to be quite similar, with the vast majority of tourism gearing towards the USA. Furthermore, in Latin American countries, such as Peru, 10 million domestic trips are undertaken annually (Eijgelaar et al, 2008). Most domestic travel is undertaken by car due to the ease of this mode of transport; for the large percentage of the population that do not own passports, this mode of transport is one of the few options of travel which suggests why it is the most popular option.