Visitors from India helped to boost sluggish international tourist arrivals to the United States last year.
The number of Indian visitors was up by 9.6% year-on-year, according to latest findings from ForwardKeys, which predicts future travel patterns by analysing 17 million flight booking transactions a day.
However, the number of tourists arriving in the United States from the Asia Pacific region fell by 3.2% last year.
The Kilauea volcano eruption in Hawaii (a top destination for Japanese travellers to the US) contributed to a drop in US-bound tourism in the second half of 2018.
In addition, the number of Chinese visitors to the US during the year remained flat (0.0% growth) amid the ongoing trade war between the two countries. Asia Pacific represents a 20% market share of US inbound travel.
On the plus side, the ForwardKeys figures show a 3.2% increase in European visitors to the US compared with 2017, representing a 38% market share. But German tourists stayed away, down 8.7% on 2017.
Overall, total international tourist arrivals in the US in 2018 showed very modest growth, up 1.0% on the previous year.
Top growing market was Ireland up 14.1%.