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The White House announced the Biden administration will lift COVID-19 testing requirements for international travelers flying into the United States starting Sunday, CNBC reports. Travelers from abroad have been required to show proof of a negative coronavirus test before boarding a flight to the U.S.

The decision to reverse the testing requirement will be reevaluated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 90 days, the article states.

“Today marks another huge step forward for the recovery of inbound air travel and the return of international travel to the United States,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Roger Dow said in a news release. “The Biden administration is to be commended for this action, which will welcome back visitors from around the world and accelerate the recovery of the U.S. travel industry.”

The U.S. Department of Labor reported that U.S. consumer prices increased 8.6% year over year in May, the highest rate of inflation in 41 years, according to the Associated Press. The rise in gas prices, averaging at nearly $5 a gallon, is one of the main reasons for the decades-high inflation numbers.

Among the sectors affected, the travel industry has seen its prices increase across the board.

“Now, as Americans resume spending on services, including travel, entertainment and dining out, the costs of airline tickets, hotel rooms and restaurant meals have soared,” the AP reports.

Industry experts at the NYU International Hospitality Industry Investment Conference said recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is leading to improved performance for hotels across the country, HNN’s Bryan Wroten reports.

Despite the threat of a potential recession, STR President Amanda Hite said strong travel demand for the remainder of 2022 and into next year should reflect the company’s significant increase in average daily rate in its newly released forecast. STR is CoStar’s hospitality analytics division.

“We still felt really positive and optimistic about the growth for this industry and think the mild recession is not something that will impact hotels and travel in the same way that it has in previous recessions,” she said.

The U.S. travel and tourism sector is expected to contribute more than $2.6 billion in gross domestic product to the country’s economy over the next decade, the World Travel & Tourism Council revealed in its latest Economic Impact Report.

It projects the sector will account for 9.2% of the entire U.S. economy in 2032. Over the same time period, the forecast projects jobs in the sector could grow at an average rate of 3.9% annually, which would be a 47% increase from 2022 by 2032.

“The long-term recovery of the U.S. travel and tourism sector looks positive, bringing more than 6 million new jobs to the U.S. economy over the next 10 years,” said Julia Simpson, WTTC president and CEO, in a news release. “But the landscape is highly competitive, and the U.S. is losing out on international visitors.”

The big U.S. tourist destinations of Miami, Honolulu and San Juan, Puerto Rico, have the highest COVID-19 rates of large urban centers in the country, the New York Times reports. The only areas with higher rates of infection are smaller communities in Puerto Rico and Hawaii along with some rural counties.

All three locations eased their COVID-19 precautions in the early months of 2022, bringing about high tourism numbers along with an increase in coronavirus cases, the newspaper reports. The recent surge in cases could be attributed to spring break travelers, big events coming back and growing public apathy toward the pandemic, said Mary Jo Trepka, professor and chair of the Department of Epidemiology at Florida International University.

“I think people are no longer taking precautions as they did before,” Trepka said. “People were masking more here in the county, and we are seeing less of that. People are being less careful, because they are tired.”

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