WASHINGTON, D.C. — A recent report from the U.S. Travel Association found that travel spending is down 85 percent from this time last year due to the worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. The week ending April 4 saw $3.3 billion in spending, down from $21.9 billion the same week a year ago. The U.S. Travel Association says that with now five weeks of evident COVID-19 impact, the U.S. travel economy has lost $60.8 billion. More than $36 billion (60 percent) of these losses have been realized in the past two weeks. With the shared decrease in spending, the organization expects that 5.9 million travel-related jobs will be lost by the end of April.
Southwest Airlines says it will cut flights by up to 50 percent in June. Furthermore, American Airlines has said it will cut 80 percent of its flights in May and cut its international summer flights by 60 percent.
As of this writing, there were 547,627 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, according to Johns Hopkins University (JHU).
The U.S. Travel Association is a nonprofit organization representing the travel industry, such as airlines, cruise lines, buses, rail transportation, museums, amusement parks and state tourism offices, which generates $2.6 trillion in economic output and supports 15.8 million jobs.