Travel Data & Forecasting

Travel Demand and Spending, City by City

Global City Travel brings inbound and outbound travel demand and visitor spending into focus for hundreds of cities worldwide.  

Travel Intelligence at the City Level

Global City Travel (GCT) delivers detailed inbound and outbound travel data for hundreds of cities worldwide, both international and domestic: visits, overnight stays, and spending, with decades of historical data and forward-looking 10-year forecasts. See not just how many people travel to a market, but where they go and what they spend. 

Cities are where travel concentrates, and understanding them is central to travel and investment strategy. GCT covers all major hub and gateway cities, accounting for half of global activity. The service unlocks key layers of insight for teams to leverage. 

What you can do:

  • Compare cities on a like-for-like basis: demand, seasonality, origin markets, and spend 
  • Understand travel from origin-destination country to city and city to country
  • Track where visitors to each city come from, across the top origin countries and world regions 
  • See visitor spending by category, for both international and domestic travel 
  • Explore ready-made dashboards with built-in executive summaries, or filter for your own views 

See What Visitors Spend, Not Just How Many Arrive

Global City Travel breaks visitor spending into categories: accommodation, food and beverage, retail, local transport, and recreation, for both international and domestic travel at the city level. Because the spending mix varies widely from one city to the next, this detail helps focus strategy and investment where the economic return is greatest. 

Grounded in Globally Recognized Economic Modelling

Global City Travel leverages multiple complementary data sources, including official statistics, air passenger flows, and hotel demand, alongside proprietary economic and demographic data for each city. Ten-year forecasts are built on the Oxford Economics Global Economic Model, a globally recognized framework. As an independent, third-party research firm, Tourism Economics has no stake in the outcome, so the analysis stays objective.

One View, Sharper Decisions

Benchmark and Compare Cities

Put cities side by side on demand, origin markets, and spend to see where you stand and where to focus.

Target the Right Source Markets

Track which origin countries and regions feed each city to sharpen marketing, routes, and capacity.

Prioritize Investment and Growth

Direct strategy and investment toward the cities and spend categories with the strongest momentum or opportunity. 

What’s Inside the Service

Global City Travel provides comparable indicators for every city it covers, including: 

  • Visits & nights: Overnight visits and nights for each city, by top origin countries, world regions, and domestic travel. 
  • Departures: Outbound visits and nights from each city to destination countries and world regions.
  • Travel spending: Inbound and outbound spend by category: accommodation, food and beverage, retail, local transport, and recreation.
  • City dashboards: Interactive, visual analysis for each city.
  • Economic & demographic drivers: Top-line indicators behind each city’s outlook.

Plus, access a web-based data workstation, an Excel add-in, heat-map visualization, exports, economist support, and event-driven research briefings. 

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Symphony has helped us provide more relevant data to our community, and the Monthly Summary Report has streamlined the process of pulling in data from multiple sources while providing a professional look in the final product. What used to take hours and hours is now a quick and easy process. And our members love the report!

Rachel Pearson

Vice President of Community & Government Affairs, Experience Scottsdale

Tourism Economics has been an invaluable partner. Symphony helps us cut through the noise of complex data and identify the trends that matter most, while their consulting team serves as a true extension of our organization. Whether we are evaluating market performance, benchmarking against national trends, or pressure testing strategic decisions, their team is always accessible, insightful, and committed to our success.

Dustin Arnheim

Chief Sales Officer, Choose Chicago

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Global City Travel?

Global City Travel (GCT) is a subscription service providing city-level travel data and forecasts for hundreds of cities worldwide. It covers inbound and outbound travel, both international and domestic, including visits, overnight stays, and spending by category, with historical data from 2000 and 10-year forecasts. 

How is GCT different from the Global Travel Service?

The Global Travel Service covers travel at the country level. Global City Travel brings the same forward-looking approach down to the city, showing demand and spending within and across individual markets. Many clients use the two together. For international travel into US states specifically, see International State Travel. 

Does GCT measure city-to-city travel?

No. Rather than city-to-city pairs, GCT measures travel from origin-destination country to city and city to country. This shows which markets feed a city and where a city’s residents travel outbound to. 

What spending detail does GCT include?

GCT breaks visitor spending into accommodation, food and beverage, retail, local transport, and recreation, for both international and domestic travel at the city level, so you can compare how spending patterns differ across cities. 

Where does the data come from, and how often is it updated? 

GCT combines official statistics, air passenger flows, hotel demand, and economic and demographic data, with forecasts built on the Oxford Economics global model. Historical data runs from the year 2000, and the service is updated quarterly.