The U.S. tourism industry expected the year to be positive regarding travelers from abroad visiting the U.S. In 2024, the number of international visitors to the U.S. rose, with some forecasts predicting 2025 would reach pre-COVID levels.

Tourism Economics, a travel forecasting company, originally anticipated the U.S. would have nearly 9% more international arrivals this year but revised its annual outlook last week to a 9.4% decline.

But travel from overseas has nosedived for tourists upset by President Donald Trump’s tariffs and reports of dozens of tourists being arrested at the border. 

The data did not show land crossings from Canada and Mexico, but air travel from Mexico to the U.S. declined by 23%. Canada’s data is expected to be released this week. Statistics Canada reported a 23% year-over-year drop in car travel.

At a congressional hearing last week, Republican New York Rep. Claudia Tenney told U.S. Trade Rep. Jamison Greer, “We appreciate the work that the president is doing. However, one of the issues we’ve experienced — and we hope that you can work on — is many of our Canadian visitors are not coming to our region. … They’re a great friend to the north, and we’ve seen a 23 percent drop just since February in visitors to our wineries.”

Canada was the largest source of visitors to the U.S. in 2024, with more than 20.2 million, according to U.S. government data. But many Canadians have been angered by Trump’s repeated threats against its sovereignty and tariffs he has continued to threaten.

Air Canada has reduced its schedule to warm-weather destinations such as Phoenix, Las Vegas, and Florida due to a lack of demand. Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, a travel booking site, noted that vacation bookings to U.S. destinations were down 40% in March compared to the same month a year ago.

Travel from Europe to the U.S. has also sharply declined. Seventeen percent fewer Western Europeans visited the U.S. in March compared to the same period last year. Travel from the United Kingdom was down 15%, and travel from Germany was down 29%. The two countries, which represent the two largest markets, warned citizens last month about traveling to the U.S. due to the possibility of detention by immigration authorities in the U.S.

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Earlier this month, Secretary of State Marco Rubio tried to minimize concerns international travelers may have about coming to the U.S. and being detained. 

“If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,” he told reporters in Brussels.