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• Tourism Data Leadership Group
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• Tourism data sources diagram
• Data release calendar
• Quarterly Tourism Report
• Tourism Evidence and Insights Centre
• Monthly unique regional population estimates (MURPEs)
• Tourism Electronic Card Transactions (TECTs)
• Accommodation Data Programme (ADP)
• International Visitor Survey (IVS)

Tourism and the economy

• International travel
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• Cruise data
• Monthly Regional Tourism Estimates (MRTEs, 2016-2020)
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• Domestic Travel Survey 1999–2012
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• Tourism sector report
• Kaikōura report
• Tourism Flows Model
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The Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) report presents information on tourism's contribution to the New Zealand economy in terms of expenditure and employment.

On this page

Latest tourism satellite account — december 2023 update.

Stats NZ develops and publishes the Tourism Satellite Account (TSA) with funding we provide.

The 2023 TSA report provides a picture of the role tourism plays in New Zealand, with information on the changing levels and impact of tourism activity. Results cover provisional figures for the year ended March 2023, and detailed results for 2022.

Note : Tables 19-26 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2022.

2023 Key Provisional Estimates

Note:  The 2023 annual estimates featured capture the impact of COVID-19 in New Zealand through to March 2023 and are expressed in nominal terms.

Key provisional estimates for the year ended March 2023:

• total tourism expenditure was $37.7 billion, an increase of 39.6% ($10.7 billion) from the previous year
• international student expenditure (studying less than 12 months) was $2.1 billion, an increase of 1068.2% ($2.0 billion)
• international tourism’s overall contribution to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services was 11.4%, an increase of 9.0 percentage points
• GST generated from international tourists totalled $209 million, an increase of $72 million
• overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand increased 858.7% to 2,199,073
• household tourism expenditure decreased 2.8% ($576 million)
• business and government increased 26.5% ($1.2 billion)
• tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $13.3 billion, or 3.7% of GDP, an increase of 30.9% ($3.1 billion)
• the indirect value added of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $8.8 billion, or 2.5% of GDP
• the number of tourism employees was 164,619 – an increase of 49.7% (54,663)
• the number of tourism working proprietors was 24,813 – a decrease of 37.6% (6,786)
• as a share of the total number of people employed in New Zealand, direct tourism employment was 6.7% .

Interpretation of data

• The data sources used in deriving the numbers for the March 2022 and 2023 years at an industry, commodity, and resultant aggregate level will be subject to future updates. These updates reflect COVID-19 related methodological challenges and further assessment and interpretation of the expenditure compositional change as part of the 2023 cycle of annual analysis and updated input datasets. Data presented in this TSA for these years should serve to provide initial guidance but may be subject to larger than usual updates.
• Accommodation expenditure in the March 2023 year continued to be impacted by both Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ), and the use of traditional accommodation providers for emergency housing, including in response to the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle. In line with the definition of a tourist, the vast majority of MIQ expenditure would not fully constitute tourism activity, particularly so for returning New Zealand residents, and emergency housing is not considered tourism activity. While this expenditure would be captured on the supply side, an allowance has been made to exclude this from the tourism demand side. This has consequently led to lower accommodation product and industry ratios which flow through to tourism employment derivations. These derived numbers therefore better reflect ‘employees’ engaged in tourism as opposed to those in accommodation industry entities servicing MIQ and emergency housing.
• The derivation of tourism employment is reliant on the relationship between tourism expenditure as a proportion of an industry’s output multiplied by that industry’s employment counts. The substantial loss of international tourism expenditure, and some domestic tourism expenditure, together with COVID-19’s wider impact on industries’ output, and the tourism recovery to date has seen these historically relatively consistent industry ratios change significantly. Furthermore, employment counts in industries have also been affected, noting that during COVID-19 this included a number of people being determined as being employed who have been supported by wage subsidy payments.

The Sustainable Tourism Explorer (STE) has been updated with the new TSA data

TSA data are now available in the STE in the form of interactive graphs. As well as visualising the data, you can also customise the graphs and download them or the related data.

Tourism GDP as a proportion of total GDP (external link)  — Tourism Evidence and Insights Centre (TEIC)

Direct tourism value added by industry (external link)  — TEIC (not available for the provisional year-ended March 2023)

Direct and indirect employment from tourism (external link)  — TEIC

2023 Revisions

Tourism satellite account: Year ended March 2023 includes updates made to both the domestic and international tourism expenditure series. These updates cause changes to the value of tourism expenditure in the New Zealand economy, and affect the official tourism satellite account (TSA) time series.

Updates to the expenditure series included the following.

• Historic changes to export education source data used to derive international student expenditure.
• Updated source data used in the derivation of imputed rental on holiday homes.
• integrating updated Annual Enterprise Survey (AES) data (2019 and 2020) and AES 2021 data with household tourism expenditure estimates (HTEE)
• continued modelling of the HTEE across the full year ended March 2023 due to changes in data supply arrangements (covered in detail in 'Appendix 2: Methodology' in download document)
• updated HTEE supplementary data sources
• national accounts data, including updated nominal GDP statistics from 2015 to 2021 (see 2023 preview of national accounts improvements).
• Updates were also made to annual Linked Employer-Employee Data and Household Labour Force Survey sources used in determining tourism employment.

Tourism satellite account: Year ended March 2022 Appendix 2: Methodology (external link) — Stats NZ

2022 national accounts improvements preview (external link)  — Stats NZ

Tourism industry ratios are impacted because of these updates. These ratios are the proportion of an industry’s output that is consumed by tourists and are used to calculate value-added and tourism employment estimates. As a result of the ratio changes, StatsNZ updated the historical value added-time series. Together with the ratio changes, StatsNZ also updated the tourism employment time series.

More detailed Tourism Satellite Account data and technical information is available on Stats NZ's website.

Tourism statistics (external link) — Stats NZ

Previous Tourism Satellite Account tables

2022 tourism satellite account tables.

Tourism Satellite Account 2022: Excel Tables 1-18 [XLSX, 149 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2022: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 49 KB]

2021 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2021: Excel Tables 1-18 [XLSX, 191 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2021: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 77 KB]

2020 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2020: Excel Tables 1-18 [XLSX, 192 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2020: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 77 KB]

2019 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2019: Excel Tables 1-18 [XLSX, 190 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2019: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 79 KB]

Note: Tables 19-26 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2018.

2018 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2018: Excel Tables 1-18 [XLSX, 193 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2018: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 82 KB]

Note : Tables 19-26 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2017.

2017 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2017: Excel Tables 1-18 [XLSX, 189 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2017: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 78 KB]

Note: Tables 19-26 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2016.

2016 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2016: Excel Tables 1-16 [XLSX, 154 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2016: Excel Tables 19-26 [XLSX, 60 KB]

Note: Tables 19-26 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2013.

2015 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2015: Excel Tables 1-14 [XLSX, 185 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2015: Excel Tables 17-24 [XLSX, 57 KB]

Note: Tables 17-24 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2012.

2014 Tourism Satellite Account Tables

Tourism Satellite Account 2014: Excel Tables 1-14 [XLSX, 193 KB]

Tourism Satellite Account 2014: Excel Tables 17-24 [XLSX, 69 KB]

Note: Tables 17-24 contain detailed tables for the year ended March 2011.

© Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment

https://www.mbie.govt.nz/immigration-and-tourism/tourism-research-and-data/tourism-data-releases/tourism-and-the-economy/ Please note: This content will change over time and can go out of date.

Rebounding New Zealand tourism is a rare bright spot for its economy

'SOLID TOURISM'

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Industry News

New data highlights the economic importance of tourism to new zealand, 4 march 2024.

New figures confirm the tourism industry is recovering strongly and making a major contribution to the New Zealand economy.

Statistics NZ’s annual Tourism Satellite Account shows that for the year to March 2023, tourism was generating $37.7 billion from visitor spending, even though this period was still in the early stages of Covid recovery.

"These figures are historic but what they show is that tourism operators did an amazing job to get up and running after our borders fully opened and as international visitors returned, they were contributing billions of dollars to our economy,” Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chief Executive Rebecca Ingram says.

By March 2023, tourism - directly and indirectly – was contributing 6.2 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP.

International visitors spent $10.8b, an increase of $8.8b from the previous year which was a strong result given the time frame and the significant rebuild underway by operators.

“While this data gives us a read on last summer, anecdotal feedback from tourism operators this summer is very positive, tourism businesses are buoyant, and the signs are that we can look forward to contributing even more strongly to the country’s economic wellbeing when this data is published again.”

She also acknowledged the underpinning support of domestic tourism, which spent $26.9b in the year to March 2023 - above pre-Covid levels.

“This reinforces the importance of our New Zealand visitors, who continued to do something new after borders opened,” she said.

According to the Satellite Account, tourism is one of the country’s largest employers. Directly and indirectly, tourism supported 317,514 jobs in March 2023, “which means even at that time, tourism was supporting 11.3 per cent of the country’s entire jobs market,” Ms Ingram said.

Ms Ingram noted that the Satellite Account was normally published in December and urged the Government to prioritise this and other core tourism data.

“For tourism in New Zealand to develop sustainably, we need fundamental information about our performance, this ensures we can manage our industry well,’’ she said.

“The TSA’s data is vital for understanding tourism. It informs both the public and private sectors and underpins decision-making. The data available for tourism must be improved so we understand the current state of the industry much more deeply than we are currently do.”

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Tourism data shows determination of sector

New tourism data out today shows the continued importance of tourism to the New Zealand economy as tourism steps up to become our second-biggest export earner, Tourism Minister Matt Doocey says.

“The Tourism Satellite Account shows how strongly tourism rebounded post-pandemic with total tourism expenditure in New Zealand of $37.7b for the year ending March 2023, an increase of $10.7b from the previous year.

“The data shows after the borders fully reopened New Zealand began to see a normalising of tourism flows with a greater mix of international visitors returning in droves along with strong spend increases in hospitality services and visitor experiences.

“The results show how important international connectivity is to New Zealand. This data demonstrated the importance of tourism to main centres and regions, our businesses and our economy as a whole.” 

Other key figures from the Tourism Satellite Account show:

• Overseas visitor expenditure increased by $8.9b to $10.8b 
• Domestic tourism expenditure increased 7.2 per cent to $26.9b
• Total number of people employed in the tourism industry increased by 49.2 per cent to 318 000 people 
• Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $13.3b, or 3.7 per cent of GDP

“These results clearly show the resilience of tourism which is owed to the determination and grit of tourism businesses across New Zealand who got through the pandemic and geared up ready to meet visitors with open arms,” Mr Doocey says.

“Most regions rely on tourism and hospitality, which creates jobs and opportunities for New Zealanders. My message to tourism and hospitality operators around the country is that our government will continue to support them to grow.”

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New Data Highlights The Economic Importance Of Tourism To New Zealand And To Households

New figures confirm the tourism industry is recovering strongly, and making a major contribution to the New Zealand economy.

Statistics NZ’s annual Tourism Satellite Account shows that for the year to March 2023, tourism was generating $37.7 billion from visitor spending, even though this period was still in the early stages of Covid recovery.   

"These figures are historic but what they show is that tourism operators did an amazing job to get up and running after our borders fully opened and as international visitors returned, they were contributing billions of dollars to our economy,” Tourism Industry Aotearoa Chief Executive Rebecca Ingram says.   

By March 2023, tourism - directly and indirectly – was contributing 6.2 per cent of New Zealand’s GDP.   

International visitors spent $10.8b, an increase of $8.8b from the previous year which was a strong result given the time frame and the signifcant rebuild underway by operators.   

“While this data gives us a read on last summer, anecdotal feeddback from tourism operators this summer is very positive, tourism businesses are buoyant, and the signs are that we can look forward to contributing even more strongly to the country’s economic wellbeing when this data is published again.”   

She also acknowledged the underpinning support of domestic tourism, which spent $26.9b in the year to March 2023 - above pre-Covid levels.   

“This reinforces the importance of our New Zealand visitors, who continued to do something new after borders opened,” she said.  

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According to the Satellite Account, tourism is one of the country’s largest employers. Directly and indirectly, tourism supported 317,514 jobs in March 2023, “which means even at that time, tourism was supporting 11.3 per cent of the country’s entire jobs market,” Ms Ingram said.   

Ms Ingram noted that the Satellite Account was normally published in December and urged the Government to prioritise this and other core tourism data.   

“For tourism in New Zealand to develop sustainably, we need fundamental information about our performance, this ensures we can manage our industry well,’’ she said.   

“The TSA’s data is vital for understanding tourism. It informs both the public and private sectors and underpins decision-making. The data available for tourism must be improved so we understand the current state of the industry much more deeply than we are currently do.”   

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Travel, Tourism & Hospitality

Industry-specific and extensively researched technical data (partially from exclusive partnerships). A paid subscription is required for full access.

• Tourism value added as a share of industry GDP New Zealand 2014-2023

In 2023, the share of value added by New Zealand's tourism sector to the country's gross domestic product (GDP) was around 6.2 percent. This marked a notable drop in the gross value added by New Zealand's tourism sector, with the tourism sector contributing a share of over 8.5 percent during the period from 2014 to 2020.

Tourism value added as a share of industry GDP in New Zealand from 2014 to 2023

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Additional Information

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February 2024

New Zealand

2014 to 2023

year ended March

Note: This work is based on/includes Stats NZ's data which are licensed by Stats NZ for re-use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license.

Other statistics on the topic Travel and tourism in New Zealand

• Monthly number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand 2019-2023
• Perceived negative impacts of tourism on the environment New Zealand 2023
• Annual number of international visitor arrivals to Auckland New Zealand FY 2020-2023
• Total number of people employed in the tourism sector New Zealand 2014-2023

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Statistics on " Travel and tourism in New Zealand "

• Tourism GDP growth rate New Zealand 2013-2022
• Total tourism expenditure New Zealand 2014-2023, by tourist type
• Total tourism expenditure New Zealand 2022-2023, by product type
• Annual number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2014-2023
• Annual growth of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2014-2023
• Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by region of origin
• Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by country of origin
• Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by port of entry
• Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by age
• Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by purpose of visit
• Annual number of outbound NZ resident travelers New Zealand FY 2014-2023
• Number of inbound NZ resident arrivals New Zealand FY 2023, by country visited
• Leading tourism experience interests among outbound travelers New Zealand 2022
• Leading sport tourism experience interests of outbound travelers New Zealand 2022
• Leading wilderness tourism interests of outbound travelers New Zealand 2022
• Monthly number of international visitor arrivals to Auckland New Zealand 2019-2023
• Number of international visitor arrivals to Auckland, NZ FY 2023, by country origin
• Share of domestic overnight leisure trips New Zealand 2022, by region
• Top attractions visited by domestic tourists Central Auckland New Zealand FY 2022
• Top attractions visited by domestic tourists South Auckland New Zealand FY 2022
• Top attractions visited by domestic tourists North Auckland New Zealand FY 2022
• Views on the impact of international and domestic tourism on New Zealand 2023
• Views on international tourism impact on post-pandemic economic recovery NZ 2023
• Perceived positive impacts of tourism on the economy and society New Zealand 2023
• Views on the environmental impact of international tourism New Zealand 2023
• Views on the social well-being impact of international tourism New Zealand 2023
• Views on the impact of international tourism on culture, values, and heritage NZ 2023

Other statistics that may interest you Travel and tourism in New Zealand

• Premium Statistic Tourism value added as a share of industry GDP New Zealand 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Tourism GDP growth rate New Zealand 2013-2022
• Premium Statistic Total tourism expenditure New Zealand 2014-2023, by tourist type
• Premium Statistic Total tourism expenditure New Zealand 2022-2023, by product type
• Premium Statistic Total number of people employed in the tourism sector New Zealand 2014-2023

International tourism

• Premium Statistic Monthly number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Annual number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Annual growth of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by region of origin
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by country of origin
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by port of entry
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by age
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitor arrivals to New Zealand FY 2023, by purpose of visit

Outbound tourism

• Premium Statistic Annual number of outbound NZ resident travelers New Zealand FY 2014-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of inbound NZ resident arrivals New Zealand FY 2023, by country visited
• Premium Statistic Leading tourism experience interests among outbound travelers New Zealand 2022
• Premium Statistic Leading sport tourism experience interests of outbound travelers New Zealand 2022
• Premium Statistic Leading wilderness tourism interests of outbound travelers New Zealand 2022

Tourism in Auckland

• Premium Statistic Monthly number of international visitor arrivals to Auckland New Zealand 2019-2023
• Premium Statistic Annual number of international visitor arrivals to Auckland New Zealand FY 2020-2023
• Premium Statistic Number of international visitor arrivals to Auckland, NZ FY 2023, by country origin
• Premium Statistic Share of domestic overnight leisure trips New Zealand 2022, by region
• Premium Statistic Top attractions visited by domestic tourists Central Auckland New Zealand FY 2022
• Premium Statistic Top attractions visited by domestic tourists South Auckland New Zealand FY 2022
• Premium Statistic Top attractions visited by domestic tourists North Auckland New Zealand FY 2022

Views on tourism

• Premium Statistic Views on the impact of international and domestic tourism on New Zealand 2023
• Premium Statistic Views on international tourism impact on post-pandemic economic recovery NZ 2023
• Premium Statistic Perceived positive impacts of tourism on the economy and society New Zealand 2023
• Premium Statistic Views on the environmental impact of international tourism New Zealand 2023
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• Premium Statistic Views on the social well-being impact of international tourism New Zealand 2023
• Premium Statistic Views on the impact of international tourism on culture, values, and heritage NZ 2023

Further Content: You might find this interesting as well

Tourism New Zealand is responsible for promoting New Zealand in key markets as a visitor destination.

How TNZ markets Aotearoa New Zealand

By 100% Pure New Zealand

How we promote       The tourism sector       Tourism's contribution

To ensure tourism gives back more than it takes, we target high quality visitors from key markets. 

Once here, it’s important our visitors have a great experience, so we also guide them on travelling safely and caring for our home, people and culture.

We want to ensure that tourism contributes across four well-being pillars:

• Economy  The tourism economy thrives and grows adding incremental value to the New Zealand economy and its assets.
• Nature  Tourism restores, maintains and nourishes the environment for the intergenerational benefit of New Zealand.
• Culture  The tourism story and experience preserve and enhance our values, culture and heritage; the makeup of our identity.
• Society  People in and part of tourism communities thrive through jobs, shared knowledge, and physical and mental well-being.

How we promote New Zealand

Our activity is carefully focused on several key markets around the world and a select group of consumers within those key markets. This is so we get the maximum yield for the tourism industry.

We work offshore to encourage our target market, the 'Active Considerer' to come now, visit more of our regions and do more during their time here. Our advertising, media and events activity is continually evolving, to stay one step ahead of our competitors.

As well as marketing to consumers, our trade training, marketing and media programme is designed to ensure that those who sell New Zealand have the knowledge and understanding to do so well.

Back to top

Who makes up the tourism sector

Minister of Tourism and Hospitality The Minister of Tourism and Hospitality is responsible for supporting and promoting tourism and hospitality. As part of this role, the Minister sets expectations for Tourism New Zealand.

Ministry of Business, Innovation & Employment (MBIE)  MBIE handles tourism policy and regulation. It provides tourism policy advice to the Minister of Tourism and works with other Government departments on key tourism policy issues, tourism research and statistics.

Tourism New Zealand  Tourism New Zealand is the organisation responsible for marketing New Zealand to the world as a tourist destination. A Crown entity funded by the New Zealand Government, it was set up under the New Zealand Tourism Board Act 1991.

Regional tourism organisations (RTOs)  RTOs operate in around 31 regions in New Zealand. They handle promoting their region to international and domestic visitors. Some RTOs are funded in part or in full by their local council, others are funded by annual membership fees.

Tourism industry the tourism industry provide tourism products, experiences and activities for international and domestic visitors.

Tourism sector's contribution to New Zealand

Before COVID-19, tourism was New Zealand's largest export industry and delivered $40.9 billion to the country. Tourism made a significant positive impact on regional economies supporting employment by directly employing 8.4 percent (229,566 people) of the New Zealand workforce.

For the year ended March 2023:

• Tourism was New Zealand second largest export earner
• Total tourism expenditure was 37.7 billion, an increase of 39.6 percent ($10.7 billion) from the previous year
• International tourism expenditure increased 456.9 percent ($8.9 billion) to $10.8 billion and contributed 11.4% to New Zealand’s total exports of goods and services
• GST generated from international tourists totalled $1 billion, an increase of $858 million
• Overseas visitor arrivals to New Zealand increased 858.7 percent to 2,199,073
• Tourism generated a direct contribution to GDP of $13.3 billion, or 3.7 percent of GDP, an increase of 30.9 percent ($3.1 billion)
• The indirect value added of industries supporting tourism generated an additional $8.8 billion, or 2.5 percent of GDP
• 189,432 people were directly employed in tourism, 6.7 percent of the total number of people employed in New Zealand.
• In total, 317,514 people were directly or indirectly employed in tourism, or one in 9 New Zealanders.

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All your jet-setting and hotel-hopping is having a significant effect on the global economy.

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The 14-figure sums can be broken down into three types of travel transactions, Bloomberg notes. Direct travel spending includes things like hotels, tours, and transportation, as well as public investment in these types of services. Indirect travel spending covers the expenses of those businesses, such as sheets and towels or the ingredients for the breakfast buffet. Finally, induced spending accounts for the trickle-down effects of hospitality employees.

In total, 142 out of the 185 surveyed countries are expected to exceed their 2019 tourism performance levels in 2024. Almost all nations are expected to see year-over-year growth, too. As a result, records are likely to be broken on a local level as well as a global.

Rachel Cormack is a digital editor at Robb Report. She cut her teeth writing for HuffPost, Concrete Playground, and several other online publications in Australia, before moving to New York at the…

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Why Time Is Running Out Across the Maldives’ Lovely Little Islands

Global tourism brought a modern economy to the country’s thousand islands. For many Maldivians, the teeming capital beckons.

Teenagers gathering to watch the sun set in Nolhivaranfaru, a remote island in the Maldives. Credit...

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By Alex Travelli and Maahil Mohamed

Photographs by Elke Scholiers

Reporting from Malé, its nearby islands and Nolhivaranfaru in the Maldives

• April 6, 2024

To live in the Maldives is to live in one of two worlds. Either you belong to the capital — Malé, a micro-Manhattan in the Indian Ocean — or you are out in “the islands,” among the quietest and most remote villages this side of the Arctic tundra.

It is in these places — far from the archipelago’s walled-garden resort atolls, where no Maldivians actually dwell — that the country is picking between two visions of its future, like much of the rest of Asia, but more so.

The outer islands are steadily depopulating, as the appeal of making a life through tuna fishing and coconut farming along their crushed-coral seashores shrinks. The splendid isolation may be what attracts visitors, but it seems incompatible with islanders’ aspirations in a nation modernized by global tourism.

As Maldivians give up on island life, the government feels compelled to keep building up Malé, the country’s one real city. But Malé is already pressed up hard against the limits of human habitation. By some measures, it is the most densely populated island on earth, with over a third of the country’s 520,000 people on a landmass that can be crossed by foot in about 20 minutes.

If more Maldivians are going to move there, its physical structure will need to be radically reworked. In the meantime, it is sprawling outward wherever it can: The government is surrounding Malé with sea bridges to artificial islands packed with housing projects financed by China and India .

On Jan. 22, President Mohamed Muizzu announced his otherworldly vision for an undersea tunnel between Malé proper and a land-reclamation project where Chinese investors will help build 65,000 housing units on what is now barely a sandbar.

Mr. Muizzu, a civil engineer by training, said the tunnel would “provide beautiful views of the sea” as commuters passed through it. (Feasibility to be determined.)

Humay Ghafoor, a researcher who campaigns against environmental degradation, said that “nobody does any assessments” before commissioning “massive infrastructure” projects. This allows an airport, for instance, to be built over a mangrove, destroying a whole island’s freshwater supply.

The Maldives consists of a thousand islands stretched along a 550-mile axis, each one a bit of exposed coral that grew from the rims of a prehistoric range of undersea volcanoes. These form rings called atolls — a word that comes to English from the native Dhivehi language. Most of the 188 inhabited islands have fewer than 1,000 residents.

The resorts — those airy villas floating over turquoise seas — are all on technically “uninhabited” islands. The guests are foreign, and most of the staff is, too, mainly from India and Bangladesh. In some ways, the resorts are like offshore oil rigs, pumping out nearly all of the country’s income. By design, they are divorced from Maldivian culture and abstracted from their South Asian location.

Bay of Bengal

Nolhivaranfaru

The typical inhabited island is likewise rich in sunshine and warmth and has access to a shallow lagoon, palm trees and maybe a mangrove forest. The inhabitants are highly literate, many are English-speaking and they are connected to the rest of the world by the internet, mobile data and long ferry routes.

Their traditions survive, still. Perhaps every island except Malé has a holhuashi, a covered seating platform at its harbor, sometimes circled by hanging woven chairs. Men gather to rest at midday and exchange gossip.

There is little doubt that climate change will eventually bring doom to this country, most of which is just a meter or two above sea level. But that catastrophe is thought to be a century or more away.

Instead, Maldivians are leaving the islands for the sake of their children, looking to Malé and the world beyond. When it comes to education and health care, there is no substitute for city life.

Nolhivaranfaru, a fishhook-shaped bit of powdery white sand, with a green and fertile core between its beaches, is like many of the Maldives’ inhabited islands. Flowering frangipani stand over an Islamic cemetery near its piers, centered around a centuries-old shrine to an Arab pilgrim. It takes 25 minutes by speedboat to reach the nearest landmass and two airplanes from there to get to neighboring India.

That is a journey that Maryam Asima, a 30-year-old mother of twins, made at great cost and personal hardship. She and her husband, the captain of a tourist yacht that docks 175 miles away, near Malé, had been unable to conceive. Two years ago, Ms. Asima and her sister, who was in a similar position, traveled to Kochi, India, a city of 2.1 million, where they made do on their own during 11 months of IVF treatment.

Health care remains rudimentary even on the better connected of the outer islands. Staff at the local clinic scoff at the idea of someday providing IVF. They say quietly that even most emergency care is beyond them: Any patient who needs a ventilator must be flown hundreds of miles away.

Ms. Asima, now back on the island with her 6-month-old twins, says she is satisfied with the results of her ordeal. Her sister has given her a nephew, too. With her encouragement, two other women from the island have become pregnant in the same way. The government has started offering $500 subsidies and the possibility of free air travel for families that need to go abroad for IVF.

She likes the “home feeling” of her island and hopes to send her children to school there, even if they need to travel to a nearby island to see a pediatrician. But this is not her first home: Ms. Asima was born on an even smaller island, Maavaidhoo, which was abandoned after being swamped by the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004.

Many Maldivians have been on the move for a generation or more, leaving smaller communities for larger ones. More than anywhere else, those who can afford it go to Malé.

Thirty years ago, it was not unusual for families to send unaccompanied minors on long ferry journeys, of 20 hours or more, to live in Malé. They would stay with distant relatives or even strangers and work as pint-size housekeepers to pay for their room and board as they attended one of the country’s better schools.

Island families still send their children to study in Malé, but usually now they travel as teenagers; better primary schooling is available even in remote places.

The cramped conditions of the capital are the first challenge they face. A compact grid of streets jams pedestrians, motorbikes, workshops and luxury perfumers together like a miniature version of central Hong Kong. One-bedroom apartments rent for five times the starting salary of a government office worker.

Ajuvad, a nervous, soft-spoken 23-year-old, came to Malé at 16 to join his older siblings, six people crammed into three bedrooms. They are all professionals, with jobs as teachers and technicians. But they were raised in another world, a 36-hour ferry ride away. There, the beach was a five-minute walk away with no roads and no motorbikes, and their home was a four-bedroom house that their father, a fisherman, built himself. Their mother made fish paste and sold it to neighbors.

Ajuvad, who asked that his last name be withheld to protect his privacy, remembers the transition as being “quite a challenge.” Having to live without his parents, and without an inch of space to study alone in quiet, he said, “I thought my world had collapsed.”

Ahmed Abbas, a 39-year-old hardware salesman, had an easier time moving into Malé’s urban sprawl from a distant southern island 12 years ago. His family of six shares a two-bedroom apartment in a complex built by Chinese developers, across a sea bridge from the city proper. They spend only half of their income on rent, and he drives to the city, 25 minutes each way, twice a day.

Mr. Abbas studied and worked around South India for many years before settling down. He has seen enough of the world to appreciate his family’s perch, which they share with two love birds: Small, exotic pets are a big business in little Malé.

But he still misses the island life. Back home, it was “nice because the people are nice,” he said, “normal country people, all smiling.”

Alex Travelli is a correspondent for The Times based in New Delhi, covering business and economic matters in India and the rest of South Asia. He previously worked as an editor and correspondent for The Economist. More about Alex Travelli

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This airline updated its premium economy service: How that impacts your next long-haul trip

Singapore Airlines unveiled an overhauled cabin service for its premium economy passengers earlier this month, and it’s part of a broader trend. 

Long-haul premium economy is becoming increasingly important to airlines. That’s partly because leisure travelers have been willing to splurge more on vacations in recent years and business travel still hasn’t fully recovered to its pre-pandemic demand levels. 

Demand for premium economy is increasing as travelers become more familiar with what to expect, which makes competition for those midmarket dollars more intense. Carriers around the globe are aware of the growing interest and are increasingly investing in the cabin class.

What is premium economy?

In this case, premium economy refers to the long-haul airline product that sits between standard economy and business class. Confusingly, many airlines also call economy seats that have extra legroom “premium economy” on domestic flights, but here, the term refers to a separate cabin with larger seats and often elevated service. 

“Premium economy is the 21st-century version of business class. Business class emerged in the 1980s as an interim cabin between standard economy and first class, and now premium economy is an interim cabin between standard economy and business class,” Henry Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research, a travel industry analytics firm, told USA TODAY. “It’s available to travelers at a much lower cost than business class may be.”

What travelers should expect when flying premium economy

Joe Lai, a physician in Charlotte, North Carolina, and American Airlines frequent flyer, told USA TODAY that he finds premium economy is often a better overall experience than flying in coach.

“Generally better seats, that’s kind of the biggest plus of that, just being able to relax, throw my feet up – with shoes on preferably,” he said. “Sometimes upgraded food options, alcohol, things like that.” 

Premium economy on long-haul flights usually has larger seats than economy as Lai mentioned, with more legroom, possibly more padding, and often a more elaborate cabin service compared to the standard economy offering.

Singapore Airlines, for example, serves its premium economy meals in porcelain dishware with metal cutlery. 

But as Harteveldt said, premium economy is meant to be a bridge between standard economy and business class, not a competing product for the fancier cabins.

“It is definitely better, tangibly better than standard coach,” he said, but “passengers should not expect a luxury experience in premium economy. It does not offer the same level of comfort, privacy, or attention that you find in business class.” 

For airlines, it can be tricky to find the right balance between expanding comfort and service without pirating their own more premium demand.

“How do they create a product that is good enough to tempt people to trade up from economy but not so good that people trade down from business class?” Harteveldt said. “When airlines introduced lie-flat seats in business class, they made first class almost irrelevant.” 

He added that different airlines think of their premium economy cabins differently, even as the seats most carriers use are becoming more or less standardized across the industry.

“It’s interesting to see where airlines place the emphasis: is it on the economy side or the premium side?” Harteveldt said. “Some airlines are going to offer above-average legroom in their premium economy seating, they could have fewer seats across the cabin than they otherwise might. Some airlines are going to say, ‘look this is certainly better than economy, but we’re not going to have a dedicated restroom for you, we’re not going to have flight attendants that are dedicated to your cabin.’ ”

For those perks, Harteveldt said, travelers can typically expect to pay about 50% more than the regular economy fare on the same flight. 

Lai said he often seeks opportunities to upgrade to premium economy, especially on longer flights.

On a recent trip to New Zealand, he paid just $250 to upgrade to premium economy from extra-legroom economy seats. He said the cost was “absolutely worth it,” especially because the extra legroom and bigger seats allowed him to sleep more easily. 

Why premium economy matters to airlines

Premium economy has become increasingly important to airlines’ bottom lines coming out of the pandemic.

“A lot of people have been booking the premium cabins pretty quickly as well, so we’ve seen a lot of demand for the premium cabins coming out of COVID,” Siva Govindasamy, Singapore Airlines’ divisional vice president of public affairs said at a press event unveiling the carrier’s new premium economy service concept in Singapore earlier this month. “Premium economy, specifically, has been quite popular with our customers since we launched it in 2015.” 

For Singapore and other airlines, that popularity means spending more on attracting customers to buy premium economy seats.

“There is an increase in the premium economy investment, the budget that we have, as a result of this. We think that’s a good investment to make because that will ultimately ensure that the premium economy remains competitive and provides excellent value for our customers,” Govindasamy said. “You’ve got added amenities, more comfort, more space; now you’ve got even better meals, even better drinks and champagne. When we look at our customers’ feedback it’s about the value premium economy brings.”

Harteveldt said long-haul airlines that don’t offer competitive premium economy products risk falling behind their peer companies.

“When a critical mass of airlines start to do something the airlines that don’t offer it stand out and often in a negative way,” he said. “The fact that some airlines are expanding premium economy, adding more seats to the cabin, shows that it has been financially successful for airlines.”

Zach Wichter is a travel reporter for USA TODAY based in New York. You can reach him at [email protected]

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Eclipse tourism sends short-term rental occupancy rates soaring

Short-term rental occupancies have approached 88% in cities within the path of totality or near the eclipse path, airdna reported.

Niagara region declare state of emergency ahead of eclipse viewer influx

Niagara Regional Chairman Jim Bradley joins Cavuto: Coast to Coast to discuss the regions preparation and economic impact from eclipse viewers.

Americans traveling to areas near the path of totality for Monday's solar eclipse have sent occupancy rates at short-term rentals soaring, according to a report by rental tracking firm AirDNA.

The total solar eclipse – which NASA projects will begin Monday around 11:07 a.m. PDT on Mexico's Pacific coast before crossing through 15 U.S. states and heading into Canada – has caused occupancy rates to surge to about 88% in cities near the eclipse's path, per the report.

Over 110,000 short-term rental listings are active along the eclipse's path of totality, while about 44 million people live along the route and hundreds of millions more live within driving distance. Occupancy rates for Sunday, April 7 – the eve of the eclipse – have exceeded 90% in some cities along or near the path of totality.

"This rare astronomical event has significantly impacted the short-term rental (STR) market. Cities and towns located within and near the path of the eclipse have experienced a surge in demand as millions seek the perfect vantage point to view the event," AirDNA wrote.

SOLAR ECLIPSE: AIRBNB RENTALS 90% BOOKED ALONG PATH OF TOTALITY

Americans are flocking to areas within the path of totality for Monday's solar eclipse. (Mike Gonzalez/Anadolu via / Getty Images)

Parts of 15 states will experience the eclipse: Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Big cities and small towns alike have seen a boom in bookings at short-term rentals near the eclipse's path. 

Austin, Texas , had the most listings for April 7 with 9,616 and an occupancy rate of 86.9, while Dallas had 95.3% occupancy for its 4,761 listings. Cleveland had 97.5% occupancy on 2,405 listings.

ECLIPSE TOURISM BRINGING BIG BUCKS TO AREAS IN PATH OF TOTALITY

The path of totality and partial contours crossing the U.S. for the 2024 total solar eclipse occurring on April 8, 2024, as mapped by NASA. (NASAs Scientific Visualization Studio / Fox News)

Buffalo, New York, had a staggering 98.2% occupancy rate for its 1,297 listings, while Rochester, New York, had an occupancy rate of 97.1% on 1,115 listings. Killeen, Texas , had 523 listings that drew a 98.3% occupancy rate.

Among the smaller towns seeing an influx of short-term renters on April 7, Jeffersonville, Vermont , had the highest occupancy rate at 99.2% of 512 listings.

Niagara Falls, New York , had a 98% occupancy rate on 505 listings while Lake Placid, New York, had a 97.3% occupancy rate on 754 listings.

SOLAR ECLIPSE MANIA: WARBY PARKER, BURGER KING, KRISPY KREME OFFER EXCLUSIVE PRODUCTS, DEALS

The solar eclipse will pass through 15 U.S. states as well as parts of Mexico and Canada. (Kirk Sides/Houston Chronicle via / Getty Images)

AirDNA's report showed the strongest uptick in demand for short-term rentals within the path of totality, experiencing a demand surge of 207.4% from a year ago – although listings in eclipse states outside the path were also significantly higher and were up 22.4% from the same week last year.

The report noted that those figures show "the high value that guests place on the total eclipse experience," as well as the "strong appeal of partial eclipse views."

AirDNA added that the eclipse experience can be informative for short-term rental owners looking to capitalize on future events in their area through dynamic pricing tailored to the value their property can provide.

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"Although the opportunity to capitalize on this specific eclipse has passed (everyone's pretty much locked and loaded!), it's crucial to understand the emerging patterns. Short-term rental owners can use this knowledge to prepare for future events, develop pricing strategies, and leverage local attractions or events to enhance occupancy and revenue," AirDNA added.

• Solar Eclipse 2024

The Eclipse Could Bring $1.5 Billion Into States on the Path of Totality

T he total solar eclipse passing through parts of the U.S. on April 8 stands to have a major economic impact on cities across the country as stargazers flock to the path of totality. 

Factors including the date of the eclipse and the number of states in the path of totality means that millions of people will have the opportunity to view the event— and that the cities hosting them could see a combined $1.5 billion injected into their states’ economies.

“That number will include lodging costs for visitors coming from out of state or far away parts of their own state, as well as gas costs and food costs,” says Bulent Temel, assistant professor of practice in economics at the University of Texas at San Antonio, San Antonio, who performed the calculations to arrive at the $1.5 billion figure.

One to four million people are expected to travel for the eclipse, according to Great American Eclipse , an informational site that tracks solar eclipses around the world. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) estimates the days leading up to the eclipse will be some of the busiest travel days of the season, with 50,670 flights on Thursday, April 4 and 48,904 flights on Friday, April 5. That means the spending will be spread out: “[The eclipse] is on a Monday, so you might have folks coming Friday, Saturday, Sunday, spending a few days somewhere ahead of the event,” says John Downen, Director of Impact Analysis at Camoin Associates.

Read More : How Cities Around the U.S. Are Celebrating the Eclipse

Many regions along the path of totality have spent months—if not years—preparing for the upcoming surge of visitors and money. Rochester, NY, is expecting 300,000 to 500,000 visitors across the nine - county Greater Rochester region. Local businesses have a slate of specials and planned events the weekend leading up to the event—including eclipse themed beers from local breweries and a three-day pass from the Rochester Museum and Science Center for visitors to attend a range of talks and performances. 

The area’s tourism board says that some hotels have reported demand skyrocketing an average of 1200% for the four-day span leading up to April 8— unusual demand for a Monday in the region’s off-peak season. 

It’s an economic boost that no amount of planning— or marketing—can replicate. “It’s a really great tourism opportunity,” says Shannon Ealy, Director of Communications and Marketing for the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce. “You can spend millions of dollars on media buys to get our regional brand out there, but you can't exactly buy the sun and the moon crossing over us.” 

Read More: See the 2024 Solar Eclipse’s Path of Totality

But unfortunate weather could still put a damper on things, especially for businesses that might be stocking up for an influx of visitors, since many eclipse chasers decide where to view the eclipse based on weather that can’t be predicted until the event draws closer. “Even a simple factor like a cloudy day could just compromise all these expectations quite a bit,” Temel says. 

The real task for local business and tourism boards lies in converting one-time visitors into ones that return—without the promise of a solar eclipse. “Every single one of those visitors is a potential future visitor to the same area as well,” says Temel. “In the long run, the economic impact would be magnified quite significantly. 

Adds Downen: “It definitely presents an opportunity, especially in smaller communities, to showcase themselves and hopefully capture some future repeat visitors.”  

Read More : Where to Find Solar Eclipse Glasses—And Spot Fake Ones

Lebanon, Indiana, for example, is expecting its population to triple during the weekend before the eclipse. Joe Lepage, the city’s communication and community development director, says he hopes that the eclipse will change the way both locals and out-of-towners talk about Lebanon. 

“We have a large business park, great hospitals, establishments where people can work, but actually staying and living in Lebanon has been difficult to sell.” he says. "It'll give people that are going back home a chance to visit and realize, ‘Hey, that little town is nice.’ But then our locals can see all the things they have in their backyard and realize, ‘Hey, my community is pretty special too.’”

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Write to Simmone Shah at [email protected]

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Wan Chinese economy loses its appetite for NZ exports

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In times of economic strife, New Zealand has often looked to China’s mass market to help weather the storm.

But as the Government deals with the impacts of a technical recession, the Asian superpower is still grappling with an economic slowdown of its own – with flow-on effects for Kiwi exporters.

China is a noteworthy outlier in new export figures released by the Meat Industry Association.

China trade upgrade a win despite modest gains

Grim, grinding, costly – the supply chain strains again.

While sheep meat exports for February were higher in nearly all markets than the same time last year, they were down 8 percent in China by volume, and 24 percent in value. The volume of beef exports to China did increase by 4 percent, but that was lower than the average increase across all markets, and the value of those exports dropped by 4 percent.

Other industries have been affected too: forestry consultant Allan Laurie recently told RNZ the sector had been “struck to our knees” due to a lack of demand from Chinese importers, with prices likely to drop further as a result. 

In a new economic update for East Asia and the Pacific, the World Bank says growth momentum in China had slowed after a strong post-Covid rebound in early 2023, with the property market “undergoing a protracted but necessary correction” and high debt levels constraining investment in new infrastructure.

Infometrics chief executive and principal economist Brad Olsen visited Beijing and Shanghai late last year to get a better feel for the economic picture, and tells Newsroom the weaker economic tone was clear to see – albeit from a higher base than most countries.

“Consumers are more worried, they aren’t as free spending with their money, and that is having implications.”

New Zealand China Council executive director Alistair Crozier tells Newsroom that China’s delayed exit from Covid-related restrictions compared with other major economies helps to explain the “bumpy year” it has experienced.

“I think we’ve got to cut China some slack – this is just part of the inevitability of coming out of three very disturbed years.”

Crozier says the slow economic growth has been “a mixed bag” for Kiwi exporters, with some sectors struggling but others doing well; he mentions kiwifruit as an example of the latter, with Zespri recently announcing the shipment of a bumper crop to Shanghai.

Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand executive director Kimberly Crewther is relatively positive about the state of the sector’s exports to China.

While there was a high-profile “rebalancing” last year, caused by high domestic production within China coupled with low demand, Crewther says exports to the country were up 25 percent for the year to February compared with the 12 months to February 2020 (before Covid-19 hit the global economy).

There is also optimism about the path ahead, with the country’s ministry of agriculture forecasting a 25 percent increase in dairy imports over the next decade.

Sluggish consumer demand isn’t the only explanation for reduced trade, either. Explaining the drop in red meat exports to China, the Meat Industry Association’s policy and trade manager Ashlin Chand cites an increase in imports from Brazil and Australia as a contributing factor.

“You just had this abundance of supply, as well as China working through its Covid stocks, which effectively depressed prices in that market … you couple that with a general economic slowdown, people watching their pennies and food inflation being high, [and that] meant that demand slowed down,” Chand tells Newsroom.

Looming over the fiscal environment are ongoing geopolitical tensions between the West and China, which are having their own economic impact.

Foreign direct investment into China has fallen to a 30-year low, according to Chinese government data, with concern about unequal treatment for foreign firms mixed with a push in some countries for “de-risking” of supply chains.

That has led to a Chinese push to attract investors back, with the government pledging to put foreign firms on a level playing field with locals and Chinese president Xi Jinping meeting with American business leaders in Beijing .

Crozier welcomes the rhetoric, saying China is aware of the importance of remaining open to the global economy and isn’t becoming as insular as some critics claim. But as he notes, “the proof will be in the pudding”.

“They’ve got to walk the talk, and sometimes there are contradictions, because China’s definitely strongly promoting investment and yet there’s been cases of corporate raids in China … and foreign business people detained, which doesn’t instil confidence in investors that it’s a good place to put their money.”

“I don’t think we’ll go back to where we were back in the heady days [when] we signed the FTA in 2008, we had excellent first mover advantage in many product areas [and] as a result, lower tariffs … and people were just making hay.” Alistair Crozier

Despite those headwinds, there is a degree of confidence among Kiwi exporters about the future of the Chinese market.

Chand says the meat industry is hopeful its drop in trade will “work itself out” within a year given increasing demand for red meat exports and the popularity of New Zealand products, while Crewther believes the dairy sector is similarly well placed to capitalise on market growth.

But while the Chinese economy may stabilise, the golden days of New Zealand’s trade with the country may be harder to reclaim.

Olsen is less confident than others about how well China’s economy will rebound, and believes Kiwi exporters will have to think more carefully about their trade relationship – not foregoing the market entirely, but being more proactive in looking for opportunities elsewhere and adapting their business models to suit the economic environment in China. 

“I don’t think we’ll go back to where we were back in the heady days [when] we signed the FTA in 2008, we had excellent first mover advantage in many product areas [and] as a result, lower tariffs … and people were just making hay,” Crozier says, with China’s staggering double-digit growth of years past replaced with a more “steady as she goes” outlook.

But if consumer confidence rebounds and positive news stories return, exporters might start to look to China with greater interest again – “probably not to where it was, but neither will it remain in the doldrums permanently”.

Join the Conversation

In the medium- to long-term, it might be unwise to rely on China as a target market for our exports. They are vulnerable to some of the more serious impacts of climate disruption. Let’s not fool ourselves: the environment is not an ‘externality’ – it’s the bedrock of the global economy. https://phys.org/news/2023-07-extreme-heat-occurrences-humidity-china.html https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/jul/31/chinas-most-populous-area-could-be-uninhabitable-by-end-of-century https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/sep/18/peak-china-jobs-local-services-and-welfare-strain-under-economys-structural-faults

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Here's what the Credit Card Competition Act could do to your airline miles and travel rewards

• The Credit Card Competition Act would lower credit card swipe fees. 
• Major airlines have said that the bill could reduce or completely end travel reward programs. 
• About 40% of American credit card users have a card that is co-branded with a major airline.

When Jess Bohorquez stayed in a luxury hotel with a view of the Sydney Opera House, she didn't pay a cent.

The influencer and creator of "Points By J," a platform that teaches people tricks for low-cost travel, said she uses credit card points to upgrade her vacations and teaches her audience of over 180,000 Instagram followers to do the same. 

Since she started accumulating travel points a few years ago, Bohorquez told Business Insider she's gotten discounted flight upgrades, free hotel stays , and trip insurance through her Chase credit card. She even has access to premium lounges at most airports. 

"It gets you hooked once you have that first successful points deduction for free travel," said Bohorquez, adding that it's easy to get perks if you know the rules of your credit card. "It's such an exciting feeling."

However, those perks could be in danger of disappearing. The US credit card market is at a crossroads : Politicians and companies are struggling to compromise on how much card swipe fees should cost, who should get the money, and how all of it will impact consumers.

More than eight in 10 Americans use a credit card to make payments, get cash back, and build credit, according to The Federal Reserve . About 40% of those people have a card that is co-branded with a major airline.

Some lawmakers hope to bring more competition to the market, in hopes of limiting the power of major credit card companies and lowering fees. But airlines and travelers worry it could mean the end of rewards programs .

Major airlines' bottom line depends on credit card companies

The Credit Card Competition Act , which was introduced to Congress in June 2023 would require major banks to use at least one credit card payment network that isn't Mastercard or Visa — companies that control more than 80% of US credit card transactions — to introduce more competition into the credit card market.

Visa and Mastercard currently charge businesses about a 3% transaction fee when a customer uses their credit card. The more people that use a credit card, the more revenue banks and card companies make.

That's where airlines come in.

Airlines make money off selling tickets and offering in-flight purchases. But co-branded credit cards like Chase Sapphire Preferred, Delta SkyMiles, and the United Explorer Card are profit centers for banks and airlines.

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The airlines sell banks "points." Credit card holders are then awarded those points for spending money with the co-branded card. Banks and credit card companies make money off of the swipe fees, and airlines only have to pay for the points if they are actually redeemed by travelers. It also makes travelers more likely to choose their specific airline whenever they fly.

Sen. Dick Durbin , a Democrat from Illinois, is the lead sponsor of the Credit Card Competition Act. In a statement to Business Insider, he said the bill would introduce necessary competition into the credit card market.

Durbin worries that major airlines are becoming like "credit card companies that fly planes."

"(Airlines) want to protect the billions of dollars in windfall profits they collect through sweetheart deals they have negotiated with the biggest Wall Street banks at the expense of consumers and local businesses," he wrote.

Durbin said his bill would not end travel rewards.

Credit card rewards incentivize travelers

Businesses typically make up for these credit card swipe fees by raising prices for customers . In theory, increasing competition and lowering swipe fees would translate into more affordable consumer prices.

This could mean cheaper — or at least more stable — prices for buyers, per NerdWallet .

Bohorquez, however, said increased credit card competition is unlikely to lower prices in practice. Instead, she said business airlines and credit companies will be less incentivized to offer loyalty perks like frequent-flyer miles and fraud protections.

Major airlines have already said the Credit Card Competition Act could end these reward programs. Southwest Airlines said in a statement to BI that it "strongly opposes" the bill.

"This legislation is bad policy and would undermine, if not completely end, credit card rewards programs that millions of Americans rely on for their vacations or personal travel needs," Southwest wrote.

United Airlines referred BI to Airlines for America, a lobbying group that represents the US airline industry. Delta and American Airlines did not respond to BI by the time of publication.

Airlines for America said in a press release from July that airlines believe credit card competition would harm their "ability to reward our most enthusiastic customers' loyalty and putting the viability of these programs at risk."

Still, it's unclear whether the Competition Act will become law. The bill was referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs in July, but hasn't yet been passed by the House or Senate.

Until more movement on the bill occurs, Bohorquez plans to make the most of her rewards.

"I'm not terribly worried about our points going anywhere anytime soon," she said. "I hope that people continue to earn and enjoy their credit card points and take a lot of free trips."

Do you use your credit card for travel rewards? Have you saved money on a vacation by using points? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected] .

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