Foreign Travelers Spending More on US Trips

International travelers have spent $150 billion visiting the U.S. in the first eight months of the year, a 5 percent increase over the same period last year, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported Friday.

Meanwhile, Americans who traveled abroad in that same period spent $96.4 billion, creating a trade surplus of more than $53 billion, the federal agency reported.

Spending by foreign travelers has been a boon to Los Angeles, Miami and New York, the top three ports of entry for international visitors so far this year, federal statistics show.

China continues to be the country with the biggest growth in visitors to the U.S., along with Mexico, France and Colombia, according to an earlier report by the Department of Commerce.

This article appeared in print in the October 27th, 2014 edition of Hamodia.