That's an increase of more than 3% over January-August 2016, putting 2017 on track for a record year of inbound tourism spend.

62% of total spend went for food, lodging, recreation, gifts, entertainment and local transportation; 15% for US carrier fares; and 23% for medial and education-related tourism plus short-term workers.

So about $104B was spent within the USA for non-medical, non-educational tourism services.

That's good performance, and certainly due in part to the efforts of Brand USA in overcoming the effect of the strong USD.

But will the US terror attacks that occurred after August divert potential international visitors to Canada, or otherwise keep visitors away from the USA?

Watch this space.