Olja Ivanic is preparing to welcome her cousins from Sweden to her home in Denver, USA, in June. They plan to go hiking in Colorado and then visit Los Angeles and San Francisco.
However, recently, four of Ivanic's relatives canceled their planned trip and decided to vacation in Europe instead, according to Fortune .
Ian Urquhart, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, was planning a five-day trip to Las Vegas in June to see Coldplay perform. He canceled the trip in protest against President Trump's "extremely dismissive tone" toward Canada, even though it meant losing his $500 deposit for the vacation package.
Similarly, his eldest daughter canceled her planned trip in May to Sedona, Arizona, while his brother-in-law decided not to join the usual week-long golf outing to Scottsdale, Arizona...
"None of us are happy to make these decisions, but it seems like one of the few ways we can express our feelings about the bullying behavior that Mr. Trump has directed at Canada," Urquhart said.
The US tourism industry expects 2025 to be a good year, but international visitor numbers are declining sharply.
PHOTO: Matthew Micah Wright
International visitors have decreased sharply.
The U.S. tourism industry expects 2025 to be a good year for attracting foreign visitors. The number of international visitors to the U.S. surged in 2024, and some forecasts suggest this year will reach pre-Covid-19 levels.
But after the first three months of the year, international tourist numbers are plummeting. Angry about President Trump's tariffs, and particularly concerned about reports of tourists being detained at the border, many citizens of various countries are canceling tours to the US and choosing to travel elsewhere.
The federal government 's National Office of Travel and Tourism released preliminary figures last Tuesday showing that the number of foreign visitors to the U.S. fell 11.6 percent in March compared to the same period last year. These figures do not include visitors from Canada, whose travel data is expected to be released later this week, or those arriving by land from Mexico. However, air travel from Mexico did decline by 23 percent.
Between January and March, 7.1 million visitors entered the United States from overseas, a decrease of 3.3% compared to the first three months of 2024.
Tourism Economics, a travel data company, predicted last December that the U.S. would see nearly a 9% increase in international visitors this year, but revised its annual outlook last week to forecast a 9.4% decline.
International tourists take photos of the Statue of Liberty.
PHOTO: NYT
Tourism Economics forecasts the sharpest decline in visitors will come from Canada, where Trump has repeatedly suggested the country should become the 51st state and tariffs on close trading partners have angered the public. According to US government data, Canada is expected to be the largest source of visitors to the US in 2024, with over 20.2 million arrivals.
Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, a travel booking website, reported that leisure bookings to US destinations fell 40% in March compared to the same period last year. Air Canada has cut spring flight schedules to Florida, Las Vegas, and Arizona due to low demand.
"The United States is not considered a welcome destination."
According to government data released on Tuesday, the number of international visitors from China has fallen by nearly 1%. Leisure trips by Chinese citizens to destinations such as Disneyland, Hawaii, and New York are declining sharply and are unlikely to recover until after Trump leaves office, said Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. He called this a downturn.
That downturn has financial consequences. Tourism Economics projects that spending by international tourists in the U.S. will fall by $9 billion this year.
Chinese tourists visiting the US have decreased.
PHOTO: Reuters
Marco Jahn, president and CEO of New World Travel, a California-based company, said bookings have dropped by 20% to 50%, depending on the source market, over the past eight to ten weeks. He noted that the decline was particularly sharp from Scandinavia, where Trump's repeated threats to take control of Greenland, a self-governing territory of NATO ally Denmark, have alienated people.
Jahn stated, "America is not considered a welcome destination."
Beyond, a revenue management platform for vacation rental owners, reported that searches for short-term vacation rentals in the U.S. by Canadians dropped 44% after February 1st, when President Trump first announced the suspension of the 25% tariffs on goods from Canada and Mexico. Florida, Texas, and New York were among the hardest-hit markets...
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/khach-quoc-te-dang-huy-tour-toi-my-185250409102153338.htm
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