US Tourism Suffers 8.2% Decline
- Reference: 0178970224
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/09/01/2339241/us-tourism-suffers-82-decline
- Source link:
Seattle tour operators report 30-50% fewer Canadian customers with many explicitly citing recent tariff policies and political rhetoric as deterrents. The newly implemented $250 "visa integrity fee" for certain countries compounds existing concerns about immigration policies and National Guard deployments in major cities. Tourism Economics now projects full recovery to pre-pandemic levels won't occur until 2029, three years later than initially forecast.
[1] https://edition.cnn.com/2025/08/31/travel/international-tourist-decline-united-states
Re: 17% turnaround (Score:1)
Do all those reluctant tourists still invest far more than $12.5 billion in US stocks?
Why? (Score:3)
Only 8.2%? I'm shocked that any international tourists still travel there. Sure, there are places in the USA I'd like to see, but there are places in Iran and Afghanistan I'd like to see as well, and not likely I'll ever get there in person. And the USA is at around the same level of "want to visit" as those countries.
Re: Why? (Score:2)
There is an inertia to these things - not as many people have planned vacations to Afghanistan as NY or whichever Disneyland.
There is also a ton of business travel in the US, which necessarily translates in direct and indirect tourism spending. That takes an even longer time to migrate if the country is not peripheral to your industry.
If tourism had still been slightly declining or flat since the pandemic this would be bad news. If you account for growth trends it is dire news.
Re: (Score:2)
> ... there are places in Iran and Afghanistan I'd like to see as well, and not likely I'll ever get there in person. And the USA is at around the same level of "want to visit" as those countries.
Let's see... Visit the country that still has a death penalty for homosexuality, or the one where you might see a few folks wearing MAGA hats. Hmm, tough choice.
Re: (Score:2)
Or...visit neither and go to one of the many better countries out there.
Re:Why? (Score:4)
Nobody cares about idiots wearing a billionaire's branded merchandise. The problem is that a number of people traveling to the US either for tourism or business have been stopped by border control for utterly pointless reasons and sometimes deported back home. Why would you visit a country for a vacation when there was a reasonable chance that you and your loved ones will be stuck in a "holding facility", then sent away, your vacation plans ruined?
And while the SCOTUS won't allow it yet, there are plenty of voters which would happily vote for "a death penalty for homosexuality". Remember when we were the "Land of the Free"?
Re: (Score:2)
> Why would you visit a country for a vacation when there was a reasonable chance that you and your loved ones will be stuck in a "holding facility", then sent away, your vacation plans ruined?
And their point is why would you lump the US in with countries where the worry is being permanently imprisoned with little legal recourse or just plain shot and killed by agents of the government? Trump's shittiness is real but the above's melodrama doesnt serve their point well.
Re: (Score:2)
> permanently imprisoned with little legal recourse
As opposed to being deported to a death prison in El Salvador when you're not from El Salvador with no legal recourse?
Look, I'm not interested in a game of "there exist shittier people in the world, so I'm completely justified in being a piece of shit". The point is that many places have decided the visitors (both legal and not) are EVIL and treat them badly. And nowadays, the US is one of those places. Sure, there are even shittier places, but you have not expressed any problems with our current behavio
Re: (Score:2)
> Look, I'm not interested in a game of "there exist shittier people in the world, so I'm completely justified in being a piece of shit"
Good, I'm not interested in that game either. Good thing no one is playing it.
> The point is...
No, I've already explained the point above in my own post.
Re: Why? (Score:1)
What about when Jimi Hendrix waved his freak flag high and was super popular, were we a little freer then?
Re: Why? (Score:2)
About the homosexuality: It seems Mohammed didnâ(TM)t like gay people at all, but also didnâ(TM)t want to slaughter many thousands. As a result, a conviction requires 4 living witnesses, with woman only counting as half a witness. Cameras donâ(TM)t count.
Most people can live without having sex in front of 4 witnesses.
Re: (Score:3)
> Only 8.2%?
I'm shocked by that figure too. I'm Canadian, and a LOT of by countrymen refuse to go the US. Hell, we go out of our way to not buy US products.
My wife thinks that the figure might be so low because business conferences and the like are probably counted as tourism, and are often booked a few years out and are difficult or impossible to re-locate. If she's right, I suspect US tourism is poised to fall through the floor during the next two years as events are cancelled and companies choose other countries for
Canadians and math (Score:2)
If one applied a tiny bit of thought to the article the headline number 8.2%, is largely explained by the Canadians who previously formed 28% of visitors dropping by 25%, since I'm sure you remember that 28%*25%=7%.
Re: (Score:1)
A few weeks ago, one of my wife's cousins died. He was a kiwi living in America, but none of his NZ relations went to the funeral. No one wanted to risk being refused entry because of something antiTrump they may have said on social media. There has been plenty said because of the way America has treated us (we thought our two countries were allies).
Re: (Score:2)
If you really want to see the effects just wait until the next World Cup/Olympics and count the empty seats in the stadiums.
No, duh. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why would anyone in their right mind visit the USA for tourist reasons?
Canadians have been held in your gulags without due process, for no reason. Canadians!! Canada is your closest ally, and a notable contributor to your wealth and security. And you f*ck them over???
If you're willing to f*ck over your closest ally and friend to appease an incontinent, delusional, malignant narcissist like Diaper Donny, then all you deserve is :
F*CK YOU.
Don't worry, when Trump finds out... (Score:5, Funny)
He will fire the person who collects the statistics. All will be good after that.
Re: (Score:2)
Or just launch off some other wacky distraction.
Anybody up for invading Venezuela? Trump's prescience is just remarkable, I don't know how long I've been thinking to myself, you know what we really need, we need to invade Venezuela.
Re: (Score:2)
And worst of all it leads to an exchange of cultures, which dilutes our pure race.
oh the irony (Score:1)
"visa integrity fee"
from the administration with the least integrity in U.S. history
these things write themselves...
Good (Score:3)
When those small tour businesses run by Trump supporters which rely on touristss to stay in business start squealing they're going out of business because of lack of tourists, we can sit back and enjoy a drink. This is what they wanted, they can live with the consequences.
Travel to the US doesn't make sense (Score:5, Informative)
Why would I give my money to a state that is waging economic war against mine, with the explicit goal of conquering my country and making it more like theirs?
I like my social safety net, universal healthcare system, and drastically lower gun crime thanks.
Re: (Score:3)
Commie!
dropping tourism numbers? (Score:1)
maybe donny will ask his buddy vlad what to do...
Prediction (Score:2)
Almost all the posters in this thread who will claim that this is a good thing, or that Trump doesn't have anything to do with it (i.e. the Trump supporters) will post anonymously.
As they always do.
Re: (Score:1)
I'll byte thank-you. And Fuck U Jackson. TRUMP supporter here and support smash-facing border-crossers at the slightest excuse. Don't want tourists or refugees or kind-hearted crack-heads from over-populated jungles. Either you have the docs, or get fed ( FED//get-it! ) to the crocs ... right here in sunny NASCAR-smoking Florida.
Re: (Score:3)
Trump ended his last term with record debts, and a worse economy than the Great Depression. I can already seeing us spiraling there again. If you want to invest in reducing crime, give more money to the local police. If you want to reduce inflation, don't impose a national sales tax (Tariffs), and don't get rid of low wage workers. BTY, Trump is an "American elite", who is crappy at financial planning. Saying the word "woke", does not mean crap, it may make you feel good, but right or wrong policies
more irony (Score:2)
trump retweeted “NOTHING CAN STOP WHAT IS COMING” [1]https://www.huffpost.com/entry... [huffpost.com]
I see the 8.2 drop tripling
[1] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-shares-qanon-posts-and-other-particularly-unhinged-social-media-content_n_66d09adde4b02e9516062468
Rent seeking. Real estate guy. (Score:2)
Big surprise.
Can't imagine why ... (Score:2)
> US Tourism Suffers 8.2% Decline
Cartoon: [1]ICE's suspect sketch kit [dailykos.com]
[1] https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/25/2339549/-Cartoon-ICE-s-suspect-sketch-kit
Good. Probably people intending to not leave (Score:2)
If you wanted to come to the US illegally the tourist visa used to be a safe choice.
Many of the illegals now being deported overstayed their tourist visas. Those now coming in on tourist visas are being scrutinized harder and tracked to ensure they depart on schedule.
For a guy that owns hotels and resorts (Score:2)
He really doesn't seem to understand how tourism works.
It's not very appealing right now (Score:2)
I mean, immigration policies being what they are don't exactly make you confident to travel to the US.
Random people being sent to prisons in El Salvador even if they're not salvadorean, no legal recourse, it's scary.
no surprises there. (Score:4, Insightful)
hardly surprising, when your leader pisses off and insults your customer base then the customer base chooses to spend their hard earned elsewhere
Re: (Score:2)
Not just the USA, but most of the USAliens that live there, too.
Re: (Score:1)
Obama's but yes.
Re:no surprises there. (Score:5, Insightful)
it's not even that - all things being equal, I'd still go to the US despite not agreeing with the political climate there. It's a big country with lots of amazing stuff to see.
What I hear people really worrying about is the draconian powers that TSA/immigration seem to have acquired, and truly mindbending stories like [1]this [rnz.co.nz] or [2]this [usatoday.com].
[1] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/alert-nat/569737/nz-woman-sarah-shaw-and-six-year-old-son-detained-by-us-immigration
[2] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/12/ice-tourist-detention-border-trump-immigration/82740260007/
Re: (Score:2)
> it's not even that - all things being equal, I'd still go to the US despite not agreeing with the political climate there. It's a big country with lots of amazing stuff to see.
> What I hear people really worrying about is the draconian powers that TSA/immigration seem to have acquired, and truly mindbending stories like [1]this [rnz.co.nz] or [2]this [usatoday.com].
Its also likely less of an issue if you aren't from one of the latin America ethnic groups?
[1] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/alert-nat/569737/nz-woman-sarah-shaw-and-six-year-old-son-detained-by-us-immigration
[2] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2025/04/12/ice-tourist-detention-border-trump-immigration/82740260007/
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Why?... There is literally nothing in the US that is worth seeing over the issues that are going on... and overtime there are will be less things to see/do becuase of the changes being done now..
The reality is its better, safer, cleaner to visit other countries than the US.. (hell, I think Cambodia is overall safer (in parts) than the US (as a whole) and there are active armed conflicts there).
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
Sorta but what's really happening is ICE is rotten so there's no accountability there, you're up to whims of whichever group of officers you run into and whatever rules they feel like following. Plenty of stories of Europeans and Asian's being detained for days or weeks.
It's the end-point of America's post-9/11 fetishization of police out there to solve a societal issue with violence thus you allowed to use violence forever because violence can never solve the problem. Just like drugs.
Re: (Score:1)
> It's the end-point of America's post-9/11 fetishization of police out there to solve a societal issue with violence
If only that was true. Nobody is trying to solve any problems. Its just a cowardly dictator-wannabee who cums in his diaper every time he sees a new video of someone getting their head bashed in.
Re: no surprises there. (Score:2)
Yes, and racial segregation is less of an issue if you're white. What's your point though?
Re: no surprises there. (Score:3)
You must not have read the links. Here, I'll even post you the direct link to this Canadian of Irish origin: [1]https://www.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com] It makes no difference even if you're white but not American as the above story shows. I don't see why anyone would risk visiting the US, period, White or not.
[1] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/19/canadian-detained-us-immigration-jasmine-mooney
Re: (Score:2)
> Its also likely less of an issue if you aren't from one of the latin America ethnic groups?
It's only a non-issue if you're white. If you're any other skin color, border agents have wide latitude on what they can do.
But between the increased scrutiny of everything, including searches of phones and other devices, the accidental possibility of being swept up by an ICE raid, and the possibility of getting jailed at the border, it seems like it's a risk not worth taking.
That's even why the general method is to c
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
My wife refuses to go to the US while the current anti-women stance exists in healthcare provision over there - imagine being refused medical treatment because that treatment might affect an unborn child, despite the fact that shes not pregnant. The mere fact that she is of child bearing age is enough for some states medical professionals to refuse certain types of life saving treatments, simply because it may induce an abortion.
So while we were planning on visiting next year for AdeptiCon and then do some
Re: (Score:2)
> /sarc
... if only.
Re: (Score:1)
With a lot less tourists floating about, it does seem like a good time to go.
I'm too lazy to look it up, but I wonder what percentage of US tourism is represented by the 8.2% decline in international tourists.
My total GUESS is that it's maybe half that, AT BEST....which would be about 4% drop in US tourism overall. It's probably more like 2% or something, which would be really nominal. Anyone care to look it up? Or maybe it's in the summary or the article that I didn't read, I dunno.
What I do know is that
Re: no surprises there. (Score:2)
It depends on the amount of tourists, the type and where.
Re:no surprises there. (Score:4, Funny)
> Meanwhile in all the politically correct countries everyone is realizing that tourism is destroying their quality of life to a far greater extent than it increases wealth. Trump is never wrong.
"Meanwhile in all the politically correct countries a very small number is realizing that tourism is destroying their quality of life to a far greater extent than it increases wealth. This was not happening most places in the US. Trump lost us easy money"
Took a little work but I fixed that for you. You should work on your typing though as it really looked like you were lying out your ass there. You're welcome!
Re: (Score:1)
Looks like e found the idiot in the room.. Usually it takea a few days... Thank you for reducing that time.
Re: (Score:2)
Meanwhile in all the politically correct countries - DEFINE. Which countries? Be specific or shut your fucking lie-hole.
everyone - really? Quantify that. Show evidence or shut your lying Nazi Shithole.
is realizing that tourism is destroying their quality of life to a far greater extent than it increases wealth. - False. Stories of anti-tourist sentiment in countries such as France, in very specific areas , focus on OVERtourism, meaning "tourism numbers higher than the local population and infrastructu
Re: (Score:2)
Las Vegas isn't Venice. There is no authentic local culture to worry about. Let people come and pay insane prices for tacky glitz.
It's way more than that (Score:4, Informative)
I've seen half a dozen news stories of European tourists, white ones, being hijacked by ice. One of them spent two weeks in prison.
Who in the fuck would take that risk? The fact it's only an 8% drop really shows how little attention people pay to what's going on in the world.