Olja Ivanic hoped to welcome some cousins from Sweden to his home in June. Ivanic and the four travelers planned to go on a Colorado excursion and then visit Los Angeles and San Francisco.
But then President Donald Trump reprimanded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at a February meeting at the White House. Ivanic’s four relatives immediately canceled their scheduled trip and decided to vacation in Europe.
“The form (Trump) treated a Democratic president who is in a war was more than understandable to them,” said Ivanic, who is the US CEO of Austria Startup Longevity Labs.
The US tourism industry expected 2025 to be another good year in terms of foreign travelers. The number of international visitors to the United States jumped in 2024, and some forecasts predicted that newcomers from abroad this year would reach the levels prior to CO-COVID.
But three months after the year, international arrivals collapse. Angry about Trump rates and rhetoricand alarmed by tourist reports that Arrested on the borderSome citizens from other countries remain away from the United States and choose to travel to another place.
The National Travel and Tourism Office of the Federal Government published preliminary figures on Tuesday that show visits to the US. From abroad they fell 11.6% in March compared to the same month last year. The figures did not include arrivals from Canada, which is scheduled to inform tourism data at the end of this week, or land crosses in Mexico. But air trips from Mexico fell 23%.
For the January-March period, 7.1 million visitors entered the US from abroad, 3.3% less than during the first three months of 2024.
The travel forecast company Tourism EconomyWhat recently as December anticipated that the United States would have almost 9% more international arrivals this year, it reviewed its annual perspective last week to predict a 9.4% decrease.
The tourism economy expects some of the most steep descents to be from Canada, where Trump’s repeated suggestion that the country must become the state 51 and Tariffs on close business partners They have angered residents. Canada was the largest source of visitors in the United States in 2024, with more than 20.2 million, according to data from the United States government.
Flight Center Travel Group Canada, a travel reserve site, said leisure reserves for US destinations fell 40% in March compared to the same month of the previous year. Air Canada has reduced its spring flight schedule to Florida, Las Vegas and Arizona due to lack of demand.
The National Travel and Tourism Office gave a more pink forecast last month for international trips to the US. On the basis of the 2024 travel patterns, the office said that arrivals increased 6.5% to 77.1 million this year and exceed the levels of 2019 in 2026.
But the tourism economy said that the impact of the least favorable vision of the United States from abroad could be severe enough for international visits not to exceed pre-pandemic levels until 2029.
“All survey data indicate a significant combination of cancellations and a massive fall in the intention to travel,” said the president of the tourist economy, Adam Sacks.
Ian Urquhart, Professor Emeritus at Alberta University at Edmonton, Canada, would go to Las Vegas for five days in June and see Coldplay in concert. He canceled the trip to protest Trump’s “incredibly derogatory tone” to Canada, although it meant losing a tank of $ 500 in the vacation package.
His eldest daughter rejected a planned trip from May to Sedona, Arizona, while her brother -in -law decided not to make her golf trip of a regular week to Scottsdale, Arizona, according to Urquhart.
“None of us jumped for joy when we made those decisions, but it seemed to be one of the few ways in which we could indicate how we felt about the intimidation that its president has directed to Canada,” said Urquhart.
For Pepa Cuevas and her husband, who live in Madrid, Trump’s choice in November was a turning point. The couple had planned to spend a month skiing in Colorado during the winter holidays. Instead, they went to Japan.
“Trump’s victory left us, especially me, very shocked,” Cuevas said. “At the moment, we have lost the desire to return. I do not know what will happen in the future, but for the moment we are still shocked, and it does not seem that this will be resolved.”
According to government data published on Tuesday, China’s international arrivals fell almost 1%. Leisure trips to Chinese citizens to places like Disneyland, Hawaii and New York are decreasing drastically and probably will not recover again until Trump has left office, said Wolfgang Georg Arlt, CEO of the Chinese Tourism Research Institute of Tourism. He calls him the “Trump’s fall.”
That depression has financial consequences. The tourism economy expects the American spending on international visitors to fall by $ 9 billion this year.
Marco Jahn is the president and CEO of New World Travel, a California company that works with tourist operators abroad in vacation packages and activities planning. Organize hotels and rental cars for a family that wants to make a management tour of the US National Parks. UU., For example.
Jahn said reserves have fallen between 20% and 50%, depending on the origin market, in the last eight to 10 weeks. It indicates a particular decrease in Scandinavia, where Trump’s repeated threat Take control of GreenlandAn autonomous territory from NATO Denmark allyhas antagonized citizens.
“The United States is not perceived as a cozy destination,” Jahn said.
Beyond, an income management platform for vacation rentals, said Canadian seeks short -term rentals in the US. Florida, Texas and New York were among the most affected markets, beyond.
American Ring Travel, a California -based tourist operator, offers bus tours with carbon neutral from the United States that often attract ecological travelers in Europe, said Richard Groesz, hiring director of the company. But Germany’s reserves were flattened from January after Elon Musk gave support to a extreme right party party In the federal elections of that country, Groesz said.
There are other problems that affect foreign visits. The United States has been the main destination by country for Japanese tourists for years, but the data compiled by JTB Tourism Research AND The consulting showed that South Korea beat the United States in January.
The weak yen, Non Trump, is probably the most important factor that cushions the attraction of the United States, said Takaki Mitamura, a spokesman for the travel agent based in Tokyo, Vactra Corp., travelers of travelers are choosing destinations where the monetary effect is not as large, as South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand and Australia, he said.
Haruka Atomiya, resident of Tokyo, visits Los Angeles at least once a year. Last year, he brought his young children for the first time and investigated a lot to find affordable places to stay. The exchange rate caused some hotels to bend or triple the price it paid in the past.
Atomiya, who went to the University in Vermont, has always loved diversity and freedom in the United States, said he does not understand why Americans chose Trump, but does not plan to stop visiting unless he feels any physical danger.
“If the United States changes in a clearly visible way, it is also a reality, and I will probably continue to visit,” he said. “What will happen to the United States after Trump intrigues me.”
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AP Yuri Kageyama writers in Tokyo and Teresa Medrano in Madrid contributed.
