US could lose $ 12.5 billion in international travel expenditure this year, says Tourism Council

The welcome mat of the US is rolling up – at least some international travelers are, according to the World Travel & Tourism CouncilA worldwide organization that represents the travel and tourism sector. And the costs for that hospitality will be high.

The United States are on schedule to lose $ 12.5 billion in international travel expenditure this year and fell to less than $ 169 billion of $ 181 billion in 2024, according to the last Economic Impact Research, published by the WTTC on Tuesday.

That is a decrease of 22.5 percent compared to the American international spending peak of $ 217.4 billion in 2019 – and it will come after months of the policy of Trump administration that has Dealing foreign travelers from visits Because they feel unwanted or unsafe.

Julia Simpson, the President and Chief Executive of the WTTC, said that last year the travel expenditure of the US remained under the 2019 levels – mainly because the power of the dollar made it expensive for international travelers – the downward projection for this year by a negative sentiment in the Nasleep of tourist arrests And Steep rates.

“The nearby neighbors, Canada and Mexico, do not travel,” said Mrs. Simpson, referring to a decrease in travelers from those countries in response to immigration -performance, rates and politically charged statements from the Trump government. “There are also worries about Visa – whether they have the right visa or perhaps by accident being arrested, which has made people quite anxious.”

The United States are the only country among the 184 economies analyzed by the WTTC and the global economic consultancy Oxford Economics This is expected to deteriorate an international visitor in 2025. While the United States sharpening immigration and investigating visitors to its borders, other countries, such as China, relaxing visa requirements, are aimed at encouraging international tourism.

“While other countries roll out the welcome mat, the American government sets up the” closed “sign,” said Mrs. Simpson. “I am pretty sure that President Trump, with his background in hospitality, understands that holiday makers just want to come and enjoy the beautiful country and the people and the history and then go home again,” she said. “They don’t want to live there.”

The United States still have the world’s largest tourism and travel market, which last year contributed $ 2.36 trillion to the economy of the country. Only 90 percent of tourist editions in 2024 came from domestic tourists.

The WTTC says that not encouraging international tourism to the United States is a missed opportunity, because that is the real growth. Foreign travelers issue an average of $ 4,000 per trip – eight times more than domestic travelers, According to the US Travel Association. In 2024, the United States welcomed 72.4 million international visitors, 7 million less than in 2019. International arrivals fell steadily this year, with considerable drops of important markets such as Canada, Great -Britain and South Korea, according to US Department of Commerce Data.

While he is part of that decline can be attributed to the fact that Easter fell at the end of this year, By pushing a popular travel window back – especially from West -Europe – many American travel companies have revised their projections for the summer to display the downward trend.

“Without urgent action to restore the trust of international travelers, it could take a few years before the US only returns to prepandemic level of international visitor expenditure,” said Mrs. Simpson.

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