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Summary
The US tourism industry faces a major decline as harsh immigration policies deter visitors.
High-profile detentions of Western travelers have led to a forecasted 9% decrease in visits, reversing a previously expected 5% rise, and risking a $64 billion loss.
Germany and the UK updated travel advisories following detentions of citizens without clear visa violations.
Canadian tourism also dropped significantly amid tariff threats. Denmark and Finland warned transgender travelers about entry issues.
Experts cite anti-immigrant rhetoric and unpredictable enforcement as key deterrents.
Only 9% decrease? That sounds pretty optimistic.
I’d guess it will be more like 50%. Guess we’ll see.
What I’m interested in is what this does to the international conference scene. I can’t imagine many of them will be hosted in the US this year, even if the event was already booked.
I mean, it’s only been 2 months. 9% drop vs 5% gain is a 14% shift from expected. That’s impressive, and Trump administration is just getting started.
I was reading somewhere online someone’s observation at Dulles airport near DC, and they said the place was like a ghost town, and they asked a worker about it and they said it’s been like that for weeks.
There was also a recent high-profile crash around there and traffic is being re-routed while the cut-down FAA figures out the airspace.
People book vacations like that well in advance. So there’s a time delay between the bookings and drop. Yesterday I read an article about Dutch travel agencies seeing far less bookings for US holidays. In january they saw a 20 percent drop, but they didn’t have February figures yet.
So by the end of this year, the tourism decrease will likely be much higher.