New York City’s tourism sector has taken a noticeable hit in 2025, with a steep drop in international arrivals. And it’s all down to Donald Trump.
CNN questioned tourists on the streets of NYC, with one theme cropping up time and time again: Trump’s policies.
“There is doubt as to whether people will get in (to the country),” one tourist admitted. “And that causes people to think of a better destination to visit than the USA.”
City officials now anticipate that the City will host around 64.1 million visitors this year—approximately 3.5 million fewer than originally projected in December. Since then, US politics has been in a Trumpmire, with inept policies crippling international trade and the reputation of the country as a whole.
With lower tourism comes lower spending, and the US is set to lose out on $12.5 billion this year, according to numbers published by the World Travel and Tourism Council.
New York is the most popular destination for tourists coming to the States, is set to be hit hard, with the local marketing organisation cutting its forecast for international tourists in 2025 by 17%. Julie Coker, the group’s CEO told CNN that bookings were “slowing down”, adding that the city had finally hoped to hit pre-COVID numbers: this is no longer happening.
US Customs ‘a hostile environment’
“With Trump it was a bit harder even for them to come,” a student told CNN. “It was challenging, because you never know if people get in through customs. So it was a bit (of a) hostile environment.”
“Your visa could be canceled,” added an Ecuadorian visitor, “it’s a lot of risks that many people don’t want to take.”
Tour operators such as Matt Levy told the outlet that should the political climate not improve, things will likely be even worse in 2026. “Next year is going to be hard. Next year is going to be vicious. My three largest Canadian clients, all three of them told me universally (that) the PTA boards aren’t going to let the kids come to America. They’re going to say, no, we’re going to spend money in our country instead. That’s 40 percent of my business.”
With the current political climate not looking any rosier in the near future, it becomes hard to maintain positivity for tourism in NYC and the United States as a whole; Trump’s immigration and economic policies are certainly not being turned onto low power mode and as such, it feels like the working people are once again bearing the brunt of the actions Trump said would solve the problems of the country.
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