Torpedoing Foreign Tourism To The US -- Potentially For Years To Come

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Suzanne Rowan Kelleher
Forbes Staff

President Trump’s tariffs, imperialistic rhetoric and viral headlines of foreigners with legal tourist visas and green cards being detained by U.S. immigration officials are “stacking up as significant hurdles for the U.S. travel industry” and “setting international travel back several years,” Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics, a nonpartisan Oxford Economics company tracking tourism statistics, told Forbes ...

Inbound travel from Canada and Mexico are particularly important, accounting for 36 million tourists in 2024 and representing roughly half of all foreign travel to the U.S.

Airline bookings from Canada to the U.S. are down 70% compared to the same period last year, OAG, a global air traffic data provider, announced Wednesday.

After the U.S. Travel Association (USTA) warned in early February that even a 10% reduction in Canadian inbound travel would translate to $2.1 billion in lost spending and would jeopardize 140,000 jobs in the hospitality sector, preliminary data from Statistics Canada for February showed a 23% drop in cross-border car travel from Canada to the U.S. ...

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/03/27/trump-torpedo-foreign-tourism/

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1. Tourists are avoiding the USA

Reports of harsh treatment or weeks-long detentions by U.S. border agents have alarmed potential visitors across the world

Io Dodds in San Francisco
Saturday 29 March 2025 19:39 GMT

... Federal statistics show that overseas visitors to the U.S. dropped 2.4 percent in February 2025, the first full month of Trump’s presidency, compared to the same time last year.

And some experts fear a permanent chilling effect that could displace the USA’s decades-long status as a hub for both business travel and vacations.

"It's already happening," one Canadian resident visiting California for the Game Developers Conference (GDC), which draws nearly 30,000 industry professionals from across the world, told The Independent.

" didn't come because they were afraid. There's not a single person I know who didn't waffle. Random people in my building told me to be careful... nobody who's paying attention is going to trust the U.S. for another ten years" ...

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-immigration-border-detentions-tourism-b2722954.html

[LisaL]

2. They are not going to be many people

willing to stay in detention under prison like conditions if US deems there is something wrong with their visa.

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3. US Travel Warnings Could Cost Tourism Industry $120 Billion

Published Mar 27, 2025 at 2:22 PM EDT
By Hugh Cameron
U.S. News Reporter

Jukka Laitamaki, professor of international hospitality and tourism at New York University, told Newsweek that should these spread to other countries, the economic impact could be "anywhere between 60 to 120 billion USD in 2025."

According to The World Travel and Tourism Council, the American tourism sector contributed $2.36 trillion to the country's GDP in 2023 while accounting for a roughly 11 percent share of the total U.S. job market.

In addition to travel advisories triggered by reported difficulties being faced at the border, the critical sector is also facing the potential decline in visitors due to tariff-related hostility toward the U.S. This is particularly true of Canadians, who have been engaged in an boycott of U.S. goods and holiday destinations as a result of the the ongoing trade war and President Trump's pledge to make the country a "51st state" ...

https://www.newsweek.com/us-travel-warnings-could-cost-tourism-120b-2051535

[LS0999]

4. Nevada and Florida voted for this.

These two states are the most dependent on tourism.

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5. Canadians pull back, threatening to widen United States' $50 billion travel deficit

Published Fri, Mar 28 20251:00 PM EDTUpdated Sat, Mar 29 20258:32 AM EDT
Leslie Josephs

Canadians are skipping trips to the U.S. and visitors from other countries could soon follow threatening to deepen the United States’ $50 billion travel deficit.

Experts say they’re pulling back for a variety of reasons, ranging from an unfavorable currency exchange rate to the U.S. political climate given President Donald Trump’s trade policies and his public statements on annexing Canada, as well as high-profile detainments of people who already had visas to be in the U.S., long wait visa times and other policies that have added to tensions with longtime close allies.

Reached for comment Friday, a White House spokesperson said by email that “everybody wants to come to President Trump’s America” ...

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/28/canada-united-states-travel.html

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6. US Tourism Drop Amid Wave of Travel Warnings from Europe

Published Mar 28, 2025 at 1:11 PM EDT
By Jordan King
US News Reporter

Germany, the United Kingdom and France are among several European nations that have updated their travel advice for the U.S. in recent weeks, warning of potential arrest or detention if travelers fail to comply with entry requirements.

It comes amid President Donald Trump's large-scale crackdown on illegal immigration, which has included pledges to carry out mass deportations of individuals living in the U.S. without legal status.

Earlier this month, three German nationals were detained – two of these cases have been resolved, with those affected returning to Germany, according to Reuters, but the third case was being handled with the consulate general in Boston involved ...

https://www.newsweek.com/us-tourism-travel-advice-update-europe-donadl-trump-2052207

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7. Tourists are cancelling trips to the US

The United States is one of the top three most visited countries in the world. The big draw cards – cities such as San Francisco, New York and Chicago and national parks such as Yosemite – have attracted international tourists for decades. This combined with its role as a global business powerhouse meant it had 66.5 million visitors in 2023 – and the 2024 figure is expected to be higher still.

But a lot has changed in recent months, and 2025’s figures may not be as strong. The 2024 reelection of Donald Trump as the president of the United States and the consequential changes in foreign diplomacy and relations, alongside internal cultural shifts, are starting to change global attitudes towards the US – attitudes that appear to be affecting tourists’ desire to visit the US.

In a recent report by research firm Tourism Economics, inbound travel to the US is now projected to decline by 5.5% this year, instead of growing by nearly 9% as had previously been forecast. A further escalation in tariff and trade wars could result in further reductions in international tourism, which could amount to a US$18 billion (£13.8 billion) annual reduction in tourist spending in 2025.

There is already some evidence of travel cancellations. Since Trump announced 25% tariffs on many Canadian goods, the number of Canadians driving across the border at some crossings has fallen by up to 45%, on some days, when compared to last year. Canada is the biggest source of international tourists to the US. Air Canada has announced it is reducing flights to some US holiday destinations, including Las Vegas, from March, as demand reduces ...

https://theconversation.com/tourists-are-cancelling-trips-to-the-us-heres-how-this-could-affect-its-economy-252858

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8. Travel from Canada to the US is Down over 70%