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Anger against Trump is forecast to cost the U.S. international visitors

Published: 02 Apr. 2025, 11:27

People walk through Times Square, one of New York's and the nation's top tourist attractions, on March 28 in New York City. [GETTY/YONHAP]

Anger over the Trump administration’s tariffs and rhetoric will likely cause international travel to the United States to fall even further than expected this year, an influential travel forecasting company said Tuesday.

Tourism Economics said it expects the number of people arriving in the United States from abroad to decline by 9.4 percent this year. That’s almost twice the 5 percent drop the company forecast at the end of February.

At the beginning of the year, Tourism Economics predicted a booming year for international travel to the United States, with visits up 9 percent from 2024.

But Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks said high-profile lockups of European tourists at the U.S. border in recent weeks have chilled international travelers. Potential visitors have also been angered by tariffs, Trump's stance toward Canada and Greenland, and his heated White House exchange with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“With each policy development, each rhetorical missive, we’re just seeing unforced error after unforced error in the administration,” Sacks said. “It has a direct impact on international travel to the United States.”

The decline will have consequences for airlines, hotels, national parks and other sites frequented by tourists.

Tourism Economics expects travel from Canada to plummet 20 percent this year, a decline that will be acutely felt in border states like New York and Michigan but also popular tourist destinations like California, Nevada and Florida.

The U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, has also warned about Canadians staying away. Even a 10 percent reduction in travel from Canada could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses, the group said in February.

Other travel-related companies have noted worrying signs. At its annual shareholder meeting on Monday, Air Canada said bookings to the U.S. were down 10 percent for the April-September period compared to the same period a year ago.

Sacks said he now expects foreign visitors to spend $9 billion less in the United States compared to 2024, when international tourism to the country rose 9.1 percent.

“The irony is that the tariffs are being put in place to help right the trade deficit, but they're harming the trade balance by causing fewer international travelers to come and spend money here,” Sacks said.

Sacks said international arrivals had been getting close to returning to 2019 numbers, before the coronavirus pandemic halted most travel. Now he thinks they won't get back to that level until 2029.

AP