While tourism is booming in the rest of the world, the United States (EU) is a remarkable loser this year, since dozens of millions of international visitors are choosing to travel to other places, which costs the economy to 29 billion dollars and puts millions of jobs at risk.
Key data
Last month, a study by the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) that analyzed the economic impact of tourism in 184 countries revealed that the United States was the only country that was predicted that it would experience a decrease in the expense of international visitors in 2025.
The WTTC projects that the United States will be on its way to losing 12.5 billion in international visitors expenses this year compared to last year, according to the investigation.
It could be argued, however, that real losses will be significantly higher, since Tourism Economics, an Oxford Economics division, had originally predicted that the United States would see a 9% increase in incoming international trips in 2025.
A 9% increase would have been equivalent to an increase of around 16.3 billion dollars in income for the US economy.
Instead, Tourism Economics has reviewed its basis for a year -on -year decrease of 8.2%, a significant variation of 17.2%compared to its original 9%increase.
From an early increase of 16.3 billion dollars in revenue to a loss of between 8.3 billion dollars (Estimation of Tourism Economics) and 12.5 billion dollars (WTTC estimate), the United States faces a deficit of between 25,000 million and 29,000 million dollars this year.
Lee: How Trump is torpedoing US foreign tourism, and it’s just the beginning: analysts
Why do international travelers avoid the United States this year?
“While other nations are extending the welcome carpet, the US government is putting the ‘closed’ poster,” said Julia Simpson, president and executive director of WTTC, in a statement. In his last client note, Tourism Economics blamed the “winds against feeling” for their projections of significant decreases in the visits of Canada (-20.2%) and Western Europe (-4.9%) in 2025. Tariffs, travel prohibitions, inflammatory rhetoric and hard immigration policies of President Donald Trump have combined for a paralyzing effect to have a paralyzing effect In visitors, and there are few signs of a short -term reversal. “Since we are in the middle of the year and we have seen these impacts, we do not know when the wind will be against stronger, but I think it will remain sustained,” Aran Ryan, director of Industry Studies at Tourism Economics, told Forbes. “In general, we assume that this persists for a while and that part of this will persist until the end of the administration.”
The significant decrease in Canada’s visitors is particularly expensive, since Canadian tourists represented approximately a quarter of all foreign travelers who arrived in the United States in 2024, according to the US National Travel and Tourism Office of the US. (NTTO). Last year, the Canadians spent 20.5 billion dollars, almost twice what Americans spent on McDonald’s restaurants throughout last year. And the Canadians do not show signs of giving in. In May, Canadian visits fell 38% by car and 24% by air compared to the same month of 2024. It was the fifth consecutive month of pronounced interannual falls, after two -digit falls in April and March. In the first quarter in early Mayor’s gains calls, the executives of the main hotel and travel companies indicated that the Canadians still traveled as much as always, only not to the United States. The executive director of Hyatt, Mark Hoplamazian, called the phenomenon “an elevated step.”
In recent months, the media, from CNN to USA Today and the BBC, have reported an increase in anxiety among Americans who fear negative reactions or hostility when traveling abroad. In a quick survey conducted by Global Rescue in March after Trump’s speech before Congress, 72 % of the 11,000 respondents (mostly based in the United States and Canada) believed that Americans would be “more negatively perceived abroad in 2025 due to the recent international policy proposals in the United States.” (The “world precaution” of the United States Department of State, issued one day after the United States Bombardera Iran, who advises Americans to “exercise greater caution” while they are out of the country, is a separate issue). Other media have reported that some Americans are more concerned with being arrested or harassed by customs agents and border protection in the United States when they return to the United States, perhaps in retaliation for criticism against Trump on social networks. During the two Trump administrations, the American Union for civil liberties (ACLU) has repeatedly warned Americans that agents have registered the electronic devices of US citizens on the border, sometimes retaining portable phones or computers for weeks or even months. “All travelers that cross the United States border are subject to the Inspection of the CBP,” confirms the Customs and Border Protection website. “Rarely, CBP officers can register the mobile phone, computer, camera or other electronic devices of a traveler during the inspection process,” and adds that “less than 0.01 percent of international travelers who arrive” have their registered electronic devices. But the reports that the agency focuses on individuals for anti-trump feeling persists. Last month, the Turkish-American influencer Hasan Piker was arrested for hours at the O’Hare International Airport in Chicago after returning from France. Paker states that federal agents asked him: “Do you like Donald Trump?” Last week, an American political consultant returning from a family vacation in the Turkish islands and Caicos was arrested for 45 minutes in a waiting room at the airport, he reported Los Angeles Times . The consultant said the agents did not give him a reason for the delay, but “he speculated that it may be for the Obama-Biden shirt he carried in the suitcase.”
Is it possible to reverse the bearish trend?
“This is a attention call for the United States government,” Simpson said. “Without urgent measures to restore the confidence of international travelers, the United States could take several years to recover the spending levels of international visitors prior to pandemic.” However, the Trump administration and the Republican party do not seem to be taking note. A Senate Committee, led by Senator Ted Cruz (Republican by Texas), drastically cut the Branal USA budget, the public-private marketing organization of the country’s destinations, from 100 million dollars to 20 million. The United States Travel Association (US Travel Association) expressed its deep concern, stating that “for every dollar spent marketing, Brand USA contributes $ 25 to the US economy” and warning that these drastic cuts will have a significant impact in all sectors of our industry.
This article was originally published by Forbes Us.
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