01 — The outbound ledger
NTTO counts US citizens boarding international flights home — the December bulletin carries the full-year market lines:
| Measure | Value | Scope · source |
|---|---|---|
| Citizen departures, December | 10,205,347 +3.6% | NTTO — 115% of December 2019 |
| Year destinations | Mexico 39.68M (36.3%) · Caribbean 11.34M | NTTO year-to-date — together 46.7% of all departures |
| Implied full-year total | ≈109M* | Our derivation from NTTO’s published YTD share lines — flagged with * |
| Direction split | North America 48.6% · overseas 51.4% | NTTO YTD; Europe in December: 1.59M +2.9%; Canada −9.2% |
02 — The inbound mirror
The inbound ledger: arrivals of international visitors, with the Canada line doing most of the damage:
| Measure | Value | Scope · source |
|---|---|---|
| International arrivals | 68,287,793 −5.5% | NTTO, 2025 — 86% of 2019 |
| Overseas-only arrivals | 34,289,238 −2.5% | NTTO, 2025 — excludes Canada & Mexico |
| Top source markets | Mexico 17,980,030 +6.4% · Canada 16,018,525 −20.9% | NTTO, 2025 |
| Top ports of entry | New York 5.85M · Miami 4.73M · Los Angeles 3.20M | NTTO, 2025 — overseas arrivals by port |
03 — Gateways and ports
The office counts arrivals by port of entry rather than airport throughput — the two perimeters differ, and we use the first.
New York, Miami and Los Angeles lead the overseas ledger (row above). Airport-authority totals (JFK, MIA, LAX) are a different perimeter; we have not folded them in.
04 — TIO coverage of United States
Everything the office publishes on the country, one click away:
Sources. NTTO / International Trade Administration — December 2025 and full-year international travel volume releases (Mar 2026). The full-year outbound total (≈109M*) is our derivation from the published YTD market-share lines, flagged with *. NTTO port-of-entry counts are not airport-authority totals.