For British tourists, the US has long been a favourite destination. Brits make up the largest number of overseas visitors to the country.
From the skyscrapers of New York to the parks of California – as well as the Fifa World Cup this summer – the USA has a lot to offer. Yet with increased debate over Donald Trump’s effect on the nation he leads and the world’s stability, questions have been raised about whether tourists should visit. Indeed, the US was the only major tourist destination to see a dip in visitor numbers last year.
So should UK tourists boycott the US? Columnist Ian Birrell, War Correspondent Robert Fox and Travel Editor Sophie Lam offer their perspectives.
The US is gearing up for a summer of patriotic celebration – 4 July will mark 250 years since the signing of the Declaration of Independence, when the country will be midway through co-hosting the Fifa World Cup. A week after the midterm elections in November, Route 66 turns 100.
For holidaymakers, these are just a few reasons to visit the US this year – whatever your opinion of Donald Trump might be.
There are, however, mitigating factors to consider. A year of America First has produced mixed results for tourism. US citizens are now able to enjoy eight “patriotic, fee-free” days when they can visit the country’s extraordinary diversity of national parks, from the steaming fumaroles of Yellowstone to the subtropical mangroves of the Everglades.
British visitors, on the other hand, face a significant hike in entry fees – admission to the 11 most popular national parks now costs an additional $100 (£75) for non-residents on top of the standard $35 (£26) daily entry, or $250 (£186) for an “America the Beautiful” annual pass.
Meanwhile, the fee for an Esta has gone up by 90 per cent, from $21 (£15.60) to $40 (£30) for the two-year visa waiver.
In 2007, the pound broke the $2 mark. Today it will buy you around $1.30. Inflation and import tariffs mean that consumer costs remain stubbornly high and that’s before sales taxes and tips are piled on top. A cappuccino at Starbucks Reserve Roastery in New York will cost you around £7.50 at the till.
Quite simply, a US holiday is expensive.
Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs were intended to make Americans wealthy again, to stop what he described as the looting and pillaging of the US by other countries that had ripped it off for the past half-century.
Nine months later, imports outpace exports – exactly what the tariffs were intended to reverse.
That trend is mirrored in tourism terms, too. Last year, the number of US citizens travelling outside their country increased by as much as 9.8 per cent (as of January 2025). Meanwhile, inbound tourism to the US has slumped. The US Travel Association estimated the travel trade deficit to reach nearly $70bn (£52bn) in 2025.
Data from Tourism Economics showed that international overnight visits to the US fell by 5.7 per cent in 2025, while US Customs and Border Protection figures show a year-on-year decline in arrivals by air since February 2025, just after Trump’s second inauguration. The US is the only major tourist destination that saw tourism decline last year.
Is that a clear sign of a “Trump Slump”, that visitors are boycotting the US? In part, yes – a huge proportion is driven by anti-US sentiment in the country’s biggest visitor market, Canada. The 21.7 per cent reduction in Canadian visitors has wiped billions of dollars off the economic slate, a result not just of tariffs but of Trump’s 51st state rhetoric.
The picture is less dramatic this side of the Pond. Last year, the UK was the top overseas visitor market for the US and bucked the downward trend, with visits up marginally by 0.5 per cent.
Nonetheless, it is not the first time that our appetite for US holidays has dampened, notably in 2016, the year of the Brexit vote, and in 2017, when Trump first took office and Britain’s economic landscape had been shaken.
Wholesale tourism boycotts are fraught with difficulty. Every 40 international visits supports one US job, according to the US Trade Administration, with around five million American workers supported by the travel industry. These are the people directly affected by a decline in visitor numbers. Many of them will not be Trump supporters, particularly as his net approval rating slumps.
US Bureau of Labour Statistics data gathered in 2025 showed that over a quarter of the country’s employed youth – 5.4 million 16 to 24-year-olds – worked in leisure and hospitality, with the majority being Black or African American, Asian, Hispanic or Latino.
If you want to see a tourism boycott in action, look across the Straits of Florida to Cuba, where US citizens have long been prevented from holidaying and where Trump has hinted that his administration may turn its sights after Iran.
Its current fuel blockade of the island has prompted the Foreign Office to advise against all but essential travel to Cuba because of “severe and worsening disruption to essential infrastructure.” Canadians – an important source market – are also advised to stay away, affecting around half a million jobs on the island.
Cuban hotel and restaurant workers typically earn around £200-£250 per month, and although many have been furloughed or assigned to labour pools, their pockets have been emptied of valuable tourist tips. Crucially, foreign exchange underpins the nation’s universal healthcare, education and social welfare systems.
Last month, Cuba’s National Tourist Office issued a statement that sought to reassure visitors that the country was open to them, pleading that “tourism makes a vital contribution to the lives of the people and their communities”.
It’s no different in the US, where holidays help support livelihoods. The American Indigenous Tourism Association is inviting visitors to look beyond “the neon signs and chrome diners” during Route 66’s centennial to “see the living landscapes that have defined this corridor for millennia… a path that has followed ancient trade routes and the ancestral homelands of more than 25 Tribal Nations.”
In New York, Hip Hop’s “forever home”, will open in the Bronx this autumn – a huge, interactive, non-profit museum that also supports community outreach projects and educational programs.
A wholesale British boycott of the US is implausible. Discretionary spending can be more valuable than withholding those tourist dollars.
Perspectives
Should UK tourists boycott the US?
