Toronto residents Douglas Bloomfield, left, and his son Phoenix, right, on vacation in Washington, hold a Canadian flag and an ice hockey stick聽March 13聽as they pose with with another visitor wearing a mask of President Donald Trump in front of the White House in Washington.
Anger over the Trump administration's likely will聽cause international travel to the U.S. to fall even further than expected this year, an influential travel forecasting company says.
Tourism Economics said this past week it expects the number of people arriving in the U.S. from abroad to decline by 9.4% this year. That's almost twice the 5% 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 U.S., with visits up 9% from 2024.
From lockups to tariffs, US actions chill travelers
However, Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks said at the U.S. border in recent weeks chilled international travelers.
Potential visitors also were angered by tariffs, Trump's stance toward and , and his with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
"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 U.S."
The decline will have consequences for airlines, hotels, national parks and other sites frequented by tourists.
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Tourism Economics expects to plummet 20% this year, a decline that will be acutely felt such as New York and Michigan but also popular tourist destinations like California, Nevada and Florida.
The U.S. Travel Association, a trade group, also warned about . Even a 10% reduction in travel from Canada could mean 2 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses, the group said in February.
Visitors expected to spend billions less
Other travel-related companies noted worrying signs.
At its annual shareholder meeting on Monday, Air Canada said bookings to the U.S. were down 10% 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 U.S. compared to 2024, when international tourism to the country rose 9.1%.
"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 were getting close to returning to 2019 numbers, before the COVID-19 pandemic halted most travel. Now he thinks they won't get back to that level until 2029.
Toronto residents Douglas Bloomfield, left, and his son Phoenix, right, on vacation in Washington, hold a Canadian flag and an ice hockey stick聽March 13聽as they pose with with another visitor wearing a mask of President Donald Trump in front of the White House in Washington.
