The International Business Times recently highlighted a just-released report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis showing that the travel and tourism sector grew at an annualized rate of 6.8 percent in the first three months of 2013. In the same period, the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 2.4 percent, according to. Not only is the U.S. travel and tourism industry growing more than three times as fast as the rest of the economy, it’s doing so despite a slowing in growth in prices. Passenger flights, which grew 19 percent in the first quarter of 2013, were the biggest contributor to the increased spending in the travel and tourism sector. Other transportation-related industries, like car rentals, also saw increased spending. However, growth in spending in restaurants, bars and hotels slowed down. The travel and tourism industry is also hiring people at a much faster rate than other sectors of the U.S. economy. Employment in this sector grew 2.3 percent in the first quarter of 2013, 0.4 percentage points faster than the pace at which the rest of the U.S. economy added jobs -- 1.9 percent.

The U.S. welcomed a record 67 million global visitors in 2012, representing a 7% gain over the prior year, according to the U.S. Commerce Department’s "International Visitation to the United States" report. The top inbound markets during the year continued to be Canada and Mexico. Non-resident visits from Canada set a record with 22.7 million visitors, up 6%. Mexico was second with a record 14.5 million visits, up 8%. The Mexico growth performance reflected a recovery following four years of small increases or moderate declines in traveler volume. The United Kingdom (-2%), Japan (+14%), and Germany (+3%) rounded out the top five. Top inbound countries with the largest increases in visits in 2012 were: China, excluding Hong Kong, (+35%), Colombia (+21%), Venezuela (+20%), Argentina (+20%) and Brazil (+19%). All five countries set new records for visits to the U.S.