USA - Anger over the Trump administration’s tariffs and rhetoric will likely cause interna-tional travel to the US to fall even further than expected this year, an influential travel fore-casting company said Tuesday.
Tourism Economics said it expects the number of people arriving in the US from abroad to decline by 9.4 per cent this year. That’s almost twice the five per cent 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 US, with visits up nine per cent from 2024.
But Tourism Economics President Adam Sacks said high-profile lockups of European tourists at the US border in recent weeks have chilled international travellers. 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 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 US.” The decline will have consequences for airlines, hotels, national parks and other sites frequented by tourists. (Jamaica Gleaner/AP)
