While doing some research into travel, I came across some data on the cities that were most visited by travelers to the USA from Overseas.
Top US Cities Visited by Overseas Travelers
Source: Statistic Abstract of the USA
Note the data above exclude visitors from Canada & Mexico.) I wasn’t surprised to see NYC at the top of the list, but I was surprised that Los Angeles was the second most visited city. Given the fact that Orlando is ranked in the top 6 as well, I’m guessing that Disney is the main driver of those visits.
The rest of the top 10 in order were:
7. Honolulu, HI
8. Washington DC
9. Chicago, IL
10. Boston, MA
2007 Visitors to the USA by Country of Origin
Source: Department of Homeland Security
The chart above shows visitors to the USA by country of origin. It includes both tourists and business travelers but excludes most short term visitors from Mexico & Canada.
Stock Photography Search Results
I decided to do a quick set of searches to see how many results there were for some of the top cities at a range of sites.
The thing that stands out the most is the massive drop off when it comes to images of Orlando, especially given that there were more visitors total (domestic & international) to Orlando (48.9 Million) than there were to NYC (47 million) in 2008. A quick check of downloads however suggests that there may not be as much demand for Orlando imagery.
Another thing I found surprising was the sheer number of Getty results. As it turns out, they include the location of the shoot in their keywords. This makes no sense to me. If I’m searching for ‘New York City’ I don’t really want a picture of a man taken in a studio in New York, I want something that evokes the city.
iStockphoto Search Results for ‘New York City’
Getty Images Search Results for New York City
Summary
- New York was visited by 8.2 million overseas travelers in 2008; about three times the number who visited the #2 destination which was Los Angeles. It’s also the destination that draws the most dollars from tourists at $30billion. (Source: NYC Go Stats)
- Orlando seems to be radically under-represented from a stock image perspective when you consider total travelers. Granted, most visitors are domestic but presumably they are still being shown images of the city when they make their travel choices. Studying downloads however suggests that people just aren’t licensing as many images – I’m not sure how to explain this but would welcome your thoughts in the comments.
