Last year, more than 56 million people living in the United States traveled overseas. That is up from about 53.7 million the year before — and it dwarfs the roughly 32.7 million who made that kind of trip only a decade ago. Those figures come from the International Trade Administration, and the trend line points in one direction: up.
Europe pulled the biggest crowd. Nearly 24 million Americans crossed the Atlantic in 2025, a record in the Survey of International Air Travelers data going back to 2012. The United Kingdom, Italy, and France drew the most visitors, while Portugal and Greece saw the fastest growth over the past ten years — that detail courtesy of a Wall Street Journal analysis of the same survey.
Passports back it up. The U.S. State Department issued a record 27.3 million of them in fiscal year 2025 alone. People are not just daydreaming about a trip abroad. They are getting the paperwork and booking the flight.
This is not a one-summer spike
I have watched travel trends come and go for more than five decades, and here is what stands out to me: this one is built to last. The people driving it fall into two camps. Older travelers — think 55 and up — are finally taking the big trip they always promised themselves, and some are even scouting a future home overseas.
Younger adults, the 18-to-24 crowd, are spending their time and money on experiences instead of possessions. To them, a passport stamp beats another gadget every time. The attitude itself has flipped. Not long ago, travel was filed under indulgence — the thing you got to once everything more important was handled. Now people treat it as essential, something they plan the year around.
None of that means a month in the Mediterranean is in reach for everyone. Higher airfares and a jittery economy have pushed plenty of travelers toward the domestic weekend getaway instead. But whether the destination is Lisbon, or a lake three hours from home, the itch to go somewhere is not fading.
Every one of those groups needs someone to run it
Here is the part most people miss when they read a story like this. All those travelers who are moving through unfamiliar places do not do it alone. Somebody leads the trip. Somebody keeps a coach full of strangers fed, on schedule, and educated/entertained in a country where they may not speak the language.
That somebody is a Tour Director — the professional who travels with the group from the first hello to the last goodbye and keeps the entire operation running. Or it is a Tour Guide, the local expert who brings a city, a museum, or a mountain trail to life and sleeps in their own bed at night. The Tour Operators who build these trips do not hand that responsibility to just anyone. They hire people who are trained and certified.
That is the opening. “Record demand for travel” means “record demand for the people who lead it”.
Where those people come from
For that, there is the International Guide Academy (IGA). We have been Training and Certifying Tour Directors and Tour Guides since 1973 — the first school to do it — and our students have come from almost 100 countries and six continents. Our graduates have gone on to lead tours on all seven. This is not a career reserved for one type of person; people from every walk of life have built it, and every graduate earns real lifetime job placement assistance.
The world is traveling again, in bigger numbers than ever recorded. If you have ever wanted to be the one leading the trip instead of only taking it — to Be Paid To Travel — there has never been a better time to begin.
Enroll now at bepaidtotravel.com or schedule a quick call and I will answer every question you have. No sales pitch. Just answers.
— Daniel Slater, President, International Guide Academy