How Trump Is Torpedoing Foreign Tourism To The US—Potentially For Years To Come, Say Analysts

Forbes

The Trump administration’s multi-front tariff wars and escalating rhetoric are turning off international tourists, according to a growing body of travel data.  Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/03/27/trump-torpedo-foreign-tourism/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00The Trump administration's multi-front tariff wars and escalating rhetoric are turning off

00:05international tourists, according to a growing body of travel data.

00:11President Trump's tariffs, imperialistic rhetoric, and viral headlines of foreigners

00:16with legal tourist visas and green cards being detained by U.S. immigration officials are

00:20quote-unquote stacking up as significant hurdles for the U.S. travel industry, and setting

00:26international travel back several years, according to Adam Sachs, president of Tourism

00:31Economics, a nonpartisan Oxford economics company tracking tourism statistics.

00:38While Tourism Economics' end-of-2024 forecast had projected 9% growth for international

00:44inbound travel to the U.S. this year, the organization has revised its baseline forecast

00:49for a year-over-year drop of 5%.

00:53Tourism Economics is forecasting total U.S. travel spending, representing domestic and

00:58inbound spending combined, will be 3.7% lower than its original prediction from December,

01:04amounting to an estimated $64 billion loss this year for the U.S. economy.

01:10Inbound travel from Canada and Mexico are particularly important, accounting for 36

01:15million tourists in 2024, and representing roughly half of all foreign travel to the

01:20U.S.

01:22OAG, a global air traffic data provider, announced Wednesday that airline bookings from Canada

01:28to the U.S. are down 70% compared to the same period last year.

01:33In early February, the U.S. Travel Association warned that even a 10% reduction in Canadian

01:39inbound travel would translate to $2.1 billion in lost spending, and would jeopardize 140,000

01:46jobs in the hospitality sector.

01:49Preliminary data from Statistics Canada for February showed a 23% drop in cross-border

01:55car travel from Canada to the U.S.

01:59For more on this story, read Suzanne Rowan Keller's article linked in the description.

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