More US citizens traveling internationally

More and more US citizens are traveling out of country, with overall international travel up 9 percent for the month of January. US citizen outbound travel totaled 4.5 million travelers for the

first month of 2014, with big numbers traveling to the Caribbean, Central America, the Middle East and Mexico.

Regional results were:

•    Europe, 578,000 travelers, up 3 percent
•    Caribbean, 498,000 travelers, up 7 percent
•    Asia, 376,000 travelers, up 1 percent
•    Central America, 219,000 travelers, up 10 percent
•    South America, 128,000 travelers, up 2 percent
•    Middle East, 140,000 travelers, up 9 percent
•    Oceania, 52,000 travelers, up 1 percent
•    Africa, 24,000 travelers, down 8 percent

US travel to North American markets totaled 2.48 million, up 13 percent in January:

•    Mexico, 2.0 million travelers, up 16 percent; air travel (549,000) was also up 16 percent
•    Canada, 476,000 travelers, flat; air travel (188,000) up 1 percent

The market share for January 2014 shows US travel to overseas locations accounted for 45 percent of US outbound international travel:

•    Europe, a 13 percent share;
•    Caribbean, an 11 percent share;
•    Asia, an 8 percent share;
•    Central America, a 10 percent share;
•    South America, a 2 percent share;
•    Middle East, a 9 percent share;
•    Oceania, a 1 percent share, and
•    Africa, almost a 1 percent share.