US travel decline blamed on their President

Thursday, January 25, 2018

As the new report of the US National Travel & Tourism Office, the number of international visitors fell by 4% in the first seven months of 2017. And, the fall in the travel to the US is majorly to be blamed on US President Donald Trump.

The trend occurred across all regions, with Africa and the Middle East reporting some of the most dramatic declines. The drop in the tourism in the US is in contrast to the rising global tourism trend.

Some have dubbed the fall in the US a “Trump slump”, pointing to the president’s America First rhetoric and anti-immigrant comments, as well as tighter visa rules for some countries and other restrictions. Vincent Wolfington, former chair of the World Travel and Tourism Council said that when people travel they look for a pleasant emotional experience. The general perception is probably that the people think there is too much trouble at this point in time to visit the US.

As per the trend, international travel to the US peaked in 2015 at 77.5 million visitors. In 2016, the number of travellers fell about 2%, which then accelerated in the first seven months of 2017 as revealed by the National Travel and Tourism figures. The figure graph shows that the fall is not uniform.

Visitors from Canada – typically the source of the greatest number of foreign travellers – increased by 4.6% year-on-year through July, according to the US.

But visits from the next two major tourist markets – Mexico and the UK – slipped in the period. Travellers from China accounted for the fifth highest number of visitors but also saw a fall however; Japan has held a strong position.

David Tarsh, a spokesman for ForwardKeys, a Spain-based company that analyses travel patterns said that the weaker pound is likely dissuading visitors. However, speaking broadly, the dollar’s value has fallen sharply this year, making it cheaper for most foreigners to travel in the US than it was in 2016. The firm also expects that the long-haul bookings to the US to continue to lag the rest of the world in 2018.

The United Nations reported recently that the international tourist arrivals increased by 7% last year. In the report, Spain is on track to replace the US as the number two travel destination, after France. Between 2015 and 2017, just two of the top 12 global destinations – the US and Turkey – experienced declines in long-haul travel, according to the Visit US coalition, a collection of travel industry groups that are drawing attention to the fall.

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