What percentage of the US population has traveled to countries other
than the USA, Mexico or Canada?

Dear B Jack, 

The Office of Travel and Tourism Industries published the data about
the travel of US residents to overseas destinations (in which they
exclude Canada and Mexico) for the last 10 years. The lastes
comparative data available is from 1999: 24,579,000 Americans visited
overseas destinations (see
http://www.tinet.ita.doc.gov/view/f-1999-11-001/index.html?ti_cart_cookie=20001013.124413.08942?ti_cart_cookie=20030128.183005.24769).
In 1999, there were 272,690,813 Americans. That's 9.02% and a rise in
the 10 years between 1989 and 1999.

According to 1997 information published by the American Hotel & Motel
Association, "19.8 million Americans visited countries other than
Canada & Mexico in 1996, this represents approximately 7 percent of
the population." (BTA "Creating Interest in Waterways Britain"
http://www.flexiblelearning.com/bta/waterways.html).

Anothern information arrived from an article written by scholar Edward
Said in the Guarudian. According to this article, "Only around 25 per
cent of the members of Congress even have passports (around 15 per
cent of Americans have travelled abroad); their views are influenced
by lobbyists and by the need to attract campaign funding." (Edward
Said, "'We' know who 'we' are" Monday October 14, 2002, The Guardian,
http://books.guardian.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4523956,00.html)
 
I hope that helped. My search strategy was to search, along with the
words "abroad" and "overseas", for terms that are likely to appear in
articles/web pages discussing this issue: "percentage of Americans".
If you need any clarifications on this answer, please let me know. I'd
be pleased to clarify my answer before you rate it.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by bjack-ga on 28 Jan 2003 16:28 PST

Dear Political Guru,

Thanks for your answer, which is quite helpful.  What I am especially
interested in is what percentage of Americans have *ever* traveled
abroad.  The article in the Guardian comes the closest to answering 
that, but is arguably the least authoritative.

Any clarification is appreciated, but your answer is very fine already.

B Jack.

---

Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 29 Jan 2003 07:35 PST

Dear B Jack,  

Thank you for clarifying your question. 
 
British MP (Member of Parliament) Peter Viggers said in a session in
26 Oct 2000, that "only about 8 per cent. of United States citizens
have passports and have ever travelled abroad." (Peter Viggers - MP
Gosford, column 456,
http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm199900/cmhansrd/vo001026/debtext/01026-26.htm).

This is the only document I've found that gives such information. It
should be mentioned, that out of the 9% mentioned in the OTTI
information, it could be that many are "repeating" travellers, who
travel more than once. Therefore, it is very hard to do such
estimations on the basis of the OTTI data.

I hope this helps. 
 
Politicalguru 
Google Answers Researchers

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Clarification of Answer by politicalguru-ga on 29 Jan 2003 07:44 PST

A comment on methodology: 

First of all, regarding my own methodology, I searched the web this
time for the combination "ever travelled" "abroad OR overseas" and
"Americans". It brought the UK-Parliament Stationary as the first
result (the others were mostly irrelevant to this discussion).

I tend to avoid unreliable, commercial sources, such as the one
presented by the commentator (a site that is a commercial tourism
site). The poll in the site, published in order to encourage people to
buy "time sharing" flats (thinking that many others would join them
and that they'll benefit from the deal), is misleading and doesn't
reveal the scope of the polled population, the manner in which thepoll
was conducted, the wording of the questions, etc. (for example:
"regardless of money and time limitations, would you like to travel
abroad for a while, to forget all your troubles and relax?").

Good research, and probably the best that could be found on the Web in
finite time, but not a solid answer to the question I asked.  Very
helpful and responsive search experts.

Hi bjack-ga,

I have been unable to find an exact answer to your question, as I
assume you mean:
"What percentage of the US population has" EVER "traveled to countries
other
than the USA, Mexico or Canada?" 

According to the Federal Trade Commission:
"North America consists of Canada, Mexico, and the United States,"
http://www.ftc.gov/opp/jointvent/madeusa/ftp/usa/094.txt

Given the above:

"About one in five (19%) say they plan to travel to a country outside
of North America for some rest and relaxation sometime during this
year."  (2002)
http://www.thetimesharebeat.com/2002/htl/mar/0306-08h.htm

Which doesn´t give you the total number of people who have EVER
traveled outside North America, but it might give you a start.

Good luck.

Dr_Know