Inside America’s deepening tourism slump

Comments by U.S. President Donald Trump in January, including threats to annex Greenland and criticisms of British military contributions in Afghanistan, sealed the family’s decision.

“We have decided that it really is not the place we want to be at the moment,” Cowley said.

Last year, as tourism grew worldwide, the United States was the only major destination to see a decline in foreign visitors, recording a six per cent drop, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council, an industry group. January saw a continued decline in inbound visitors, down 4.8 per cent from January 2025.

Visitors from Canada, usually the second-largest source of U.S. tourism after Mexico, plunged by 28 per cent in January compared with January 2024.

Other key markets like Germany and France also recorded significant declines, while Britain, the largest long-haul source market for U.S. tourism, saw a marginal growth of 0.5 per cent compared with the previous year.

“When 11 million international visitors aren’t showing up, the result is billions of dollars in economic losses to the travel industry,” said Erik Hansen, a senior vice-president at the U.S. Travel Association, a trade group that promotes travel to and within the country.

The Trump administration has made it significantly harder for some travellers to enter the United States, barring visitors from more than a dozen countries and introducing a $250 “visa integrity fee” for non-immigrant tourist and business visas designed to discourage visitors from overstaying.

Visitors are facing more rigorous vetting at the border, with increased searches of electronic devices, some resulting in detentions and denied entry.

Citizens of countries who just need an electronic authorization to visit the United States may soon be required to provide up to five years of social media history to enter; that could result in a loss of up to $15.7 billion in visitor spending, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

“These are the kinds of measures you expect from China or countries in the Middle East, not from America,” said Felicity Morgan, 49, a British trade auditor who lives between Amsterdam and London, referring to detentions at airports linked to social media screenings for content deemed critical of the government or a risk to national security. Last month, she cancelled a trip to Miami for her friend’s 50th birthday because she didn’t want to risk losing thousands of dollars if she was denied entry.

With the United States set to host the FIFA World Cup this summer and major events lined up around the country’s 250th anniversary and the Route 66 Centennial, 2026 has the potential to reverse the negative trend line, Hansen said. Initial projections from Oxford Economics, the global economic advisory firm, forecast a 3.9% growth in international inbound travel, a modest gain that would not recoup the decline since the start of the second Trump administration.

“Ongoing policy uncertainty and enforcement actions from the Trump administration are likely to limit gains, leaving the U.S. at risk of underperforming other international destination markets again this year,” the firm said.

The World Cup is expected to draw millions of soccer fans to 11 U.S. cities this summer. Still, some members of the global soccer community, including former FIFA president Sepp Blatter, have joined calls to boycott the event in response to violence by ICE.

Headwinds in Florida With so many international tourists interested in visiting Florida, the state serves as a bellwether for foreign visitation to the United States.

Many tourists from Canada, who traditionally flock to the state in winter, avoided it last year, according to state estimates, which show a 14.7% decline in Canadian visitors. WestJet, the Canadian airline, has cut summer flights to U.S. destinations, including Orlando, Florida, and Montreal-based airline Air Transat announced last week that it will stop operating flights to Florida this summer.

While 2025 data for overall international travel to Florida is not yet available, the total number of visitors, including those from Mexico and Canada as well as overseas destinations, declined by 1.2%, falling to 12.2 million people from 12.35 million, according to data from Visit Florida, the state’s official tourism marketing corporation.

But when asked about the data, the organization highlighted the growth in overseas visitors, which excludes Canada, saying they were up 4% from 2024 and that the group expected 2025 to be a record-breaking year for tourism. “Florida is looking forward to being a hub for travellers coming to the U.S. for the World Cup,” Bryan Griffin, the group’s president and CEO, said in an email.

In an earnings call this month, Disney warned of “international visitation headwinds” at its U.S. parks. The company declined to specify reasons for the decline.

Chris French, a Florida-based Disney vacation planner, said the number of his clients looking to book international Disney destinations in Paris and Tokyo over Walt Disney World has tripled. Many of those clients, he said, are Canadian fans “who have a deep affection for the theme park but cannot see themselves relaxing in the state of Florida right now.”

Summer Outlook While it is still early in the year, airline booking analysis from flight data company Cirium published this month showed a 14.2% decline in July bookings from Europe compared with last year. The data was compiled from third-party sources and online travel agencies, between Oct. 7, 2025, and Jan. 31, 2026, and does not include flights booked directly with the airlines.

Key markets, including Germany and France, are also seeing a continued decline in travel agency bookings. In January, Germany updated its travel advisory to the United States, warning of increased risks from political violence, demonstrations and immigration enforcement in cities like Minneapolis.

Kerstin Heinen, a spokesperson for the German Travel Association, said she does not know why bookings continue to decline but that the reasons “may range from political and social factors to entry requirements and price levels.”

In France, tour operator sales to U.S.-bound travellers fell by nearly 40% in January compared with the same month last year, according to travel industry publication L’Echo Touristique, which tracks bookings.

Britain has remained stable amid the downturn in Western European visitation, but the stagnation has some travel advisers concerned about future demand.

Bon Voyage Travel & Tours, a British company that has specialized in trips to the United States and Canada since 1979, is shifting its focus to destinations in Asia, South America and the Middle East.

But Harry Hastings, the co-founder of Ocean Holidays, a British travel operator specializing in Florida vacations, was optimistic, citing strong bookings for 2026 and 2027. He said that while some customers have raised questions about the political climate in the United States, demand is historically driven by prices.

“While politics may influence perception at the margins, exchange rates and overall value have historically been much stronger drivers of booking behaviour from the U.K. market,” he said.

But for Timothee Elias, a London-based dental hygienist, lower prices only go so far. He had planned a trip to Universal Studios Florida with his family in 2024 but delayed it because of the strength of the dollar. As the dollar dropped against the British pound in recent months, he started to look at flights for April but has put off booking because of what he described as “whiplash” from Trump’s politics.

“It’s one shocking headline after another, and even if you don’t pay full attention, it naturally makes you want to stay away,” Elias said.

NOTE: As of Oct. 1, 2025, permanent residents of Canada and other visa-required travellers applying for certain work, family, or specialized visa categories will have to pay an added fee to enter the U.S. The new fee applies to anyone required to obtain a U.S. non-immigrant visa. These visas include tourist and business visas, student visas, work visas, and exchange visitor visas.

This requirement affects citizens of countries such as China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Brazil, and others. As a result, Canadian permanent residents and temporary residents who hold citizenship from visa-required countries will also be subject to the fee when entering the United States.

While Canadian citizens typically do not require a U.S. visa for travel, there are certain circumstances in which a non-immigrant visa is mandatory. These include government or diplomatic assignments, investors, fiancés(e)s of U.S. citizens, and spouses and children of U.S. citizens immigrating to the United States.