Washington, D.C.’s convention and events business has yet to see any significant fallout following President Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in the nation’s capital earlier this month, but tourism officials are working to address potential impacts, according to Elliott Ferguson, the city’s top tourism official.
Ferguson, who is Destination DC‘s CEO, said that tourism stakeholders are proactively reaching out to scheduled groups to address potential concerns.
“We’ve reached out to all groups to offer them additional dialogue as to what and how to talk to their attendees about what’s going on in the city,” Ferguson said. “And the question has been asked of us: Have we lost conventions because of what’s going on? And the reality is, not yet.”
Washington is facing fresh tourism concerns after Trump deployed federal troops and assumed control of the city’s police force, citing a “crime emergency.”
The Aug. 11 intervention came despite D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s assertion that violent crime in the city was down 26% from last year, marking a 30-year low. A White House fact sheet, however, cited D.C.’s homicide rate as the fourth-highest nationally and suggested that local crime statistics were being manipulated to appear more favorable.
Though it may be too soon to measure any broader effects on visitation, the recent developments in Washington add uncertainty to a market that had already been grappling with reduced international travel and a slowdown in hotel revenue growth.
Elliott Ferguson
International visitation to D.C. is expected to decline 6.5% in 2025, according to Tourism Economics forecasts from early this year. Ferguson acknowledged that the international inbound decline has been especially pronounced from Asia and Canada so far, hampering the city’s economic performance because international visitors stay longer and spend more, he said.
But Ferguson added that he expects overall D.C. visitation in 2025 to be flat compared with 2024’s record 27.2 million visitors.
The city’s recent hotel performance underscores these trends. Washington’s RevPAR was essentially flat year to date through July, with occupancy down 2% and ADR up 2.6%, according to data from CoStar.
Perception versus data
Kristin Lamoureux, a professor and graduate program director for hospitality and tourism management at Virginia Tech University, said that regardless of the disputed crime statistics, tourism decisions are fundamentally driven by perceptions of safety and security rather than data.
Kristin Lamoureux
“Tourism is very much about perception,” Lamoureux said. “Tourists rarely will dive deep into what the reality is. They’re going to look at what their perception is as reality.”
Lamoureux added that a military presence can create different perceptions for different visitor segments. She cited the aftermath of the 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, after which regional tourists were more likely to welcome the increased security while international visitors were more apt to view the city’s military presence as concerning.
“The tourism impact is really going to depend on a couple of factors, including how quickly the city and various other players respond, what their message is and then the overall length of this situation,” Lamoureux said.
Destination DC is already moving quickly, with Ferguson reporting that the organization has adapted its marketing strategy to counter negative perceptions with authentic, real-time content.
“You’re not going to see me out there saying, ‘Please come to D.C., we’re safe,'” he said. “But what you are going to see will be pieces that really showcase the Washington that we all appreciate as well as the sentiment of people that live here and those that are visiting.”
The organization is putting a particular focus on social media content, like an Aug. 12 Instagram post showcasing cheerful summer scenes, including snippets of a baseball game, tourists visiting the National Mall and an outdoor movie screening, with the words “a love letter to DC” imposed over the video.
Additionally, Destination DC said it will reveal plans to extend its “Only One DC” campaign at the group’s annual Marketing Outlook Meeting on Aug. 26. That campaign, launched in 2023, aims to humanize the district through videos showcasing residents.
“We’re always prepared, because we’re the nation’s capital,” said Ferguson, pointing to Destination DC’s experience managing tourism through challenges like 9/11, the D.C. sniper attacks of 2002, government shutdowns and the pandemic. “We always have a plan of action in place to focus on ‘what if.'”
