The outlook for the U.S. travel industry is finally improving thanks to an increase in the perceived affordability of travel, according to the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) and Ypartnership, which have released the results of their latest travelhorizons quarterly survey.The survey, which measures U.S. travel sentiment via the USTA's U.S. Traveler Sentiment Index—a derivative of six travel variables measured on a scale of 1 to 100—found that leisure travel is on the rise thanks to efforts by travel suppliers, who are attempting to stimulate short-term demand with aggressively discounted fares and rates.Thanks to those rates, the U.S. Traveler Index rose to 90.2 in February 2009 from 78.2 in October 2008, according to the survey."We are very encouraged that more people are signaling a willingness to travel for leisure purposes," Ypartnership Chairman Peter C. Yesawich said in a statement. "This is the first increase we have observed in the Index since January 2008, which indicates that the discounts travel providers and destinations are offering are working to attract more travelers, even in this down economy. As it turns out, this is actually a terrific time to travel because some of these great deals are sure to disappear once the industry begins to recover."While the survey bodes well for leisure travel, the USTA is quick to caution that the outlook remains bleak for business travel, for which it projects a decline as large as 5.6 percent in 2009."While this increase in short-term leisure travel intentions is positive, the overall decline in meetings, events and incentive travel threatens to erode any net gains for the total travel economy," said USTA President and CEO Roger Dow. "One of every eight jobs in the United States is linked to travel and tourism, and business travel alone accounts for 2.4 million American jobs. With the federal government projecting that the travel industry will lose nearly 450,000 jobs in 2008-2009, it is critical that policymakers work with us to encourage businesses to engage in legitimate meetings and events. We need businesses and consumers back on the road and in the air to help turn this economy around."