Pub. 3 2013 Issue 2

MEMBER PROFILE 18 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY T he U.S. has more than 5,000 airports with paved runways. How many people fly every day? The Transpor tation Se c u r i t y Adm i n i s t r a t i on ( TSA) s c r e e n e d 375 , 4 32 , 4 0 2 p e o p l e between January 2012 and August 2012. That is about 1.8 million people taking flight every day. Those numbers contain some interesting facts: • For many people, the main reason to fly is business. And make no mistake, business trips are a profitable industry, with $246 billion spent and supporting 2.3 million jobs. • People traveling alone take an average of 4.3 trips per year. Those who travel with friends or family take an average of 4.8 trips per year. AIRPLANES & AIR TRAVEL • Most international visitors are from our closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico. Canadians appear to enjoy coming to the U.S. during the winter, and their top five destinations in terms of money spent are Florida and Arizona (18 nights on average), California (8.9 nights), Nevada (4.7 nights), and New York (2.8 nights). While in the U.S., they spent a hefty $16.4 billion. • Chinese visitors to the U.S. have increased since the U.S. and China signed a 2007 Memorandum of Understanding. They stay an average of 23 nights. In 2011, 1.2million people came to the U.S. from mainland China; according to some estimates, that number will increase to 2 million visitors in 2015. It has been a long time since the only way to cross the U.S. was on foot, horse, wagon, or cart. For many, even trains and cars are a way to travel shorter distances. Cross-country travel today is usually by airplane. In fact, air travel has become commonplace in the U.S., and is the preferred method of travel for trips greater than 300 miles.