US paying the price of Trump’s foreign hostility – Daily Business

An American tourist in Edinburgh is hardly an unusual sight, but one shop assistant in Rose Street was taken aback when the visitor apologised for her nationality. She was not alone. More Americans are feeling embarrassed about the antics of President Donald Trump.

While Americans in Europe are removing their New York Yankees baseball caps and concealing the stars and stripes, the tourism industry across the US is also suffering a backlash.

The number of international visitors to the US jumped in 2024, and some forecasts predicted arrivals from abroad this year would reach pre-COVID levels.

But three months into the year, international arrivals are plummeting, according to the AP news agency.

Angered by Trumps’ tariffs and threats to ‘acquire’ Canada and Greenland, travellers are staying away from the US and choosing other destinations.

Figures released this week by the federal government’s National Travel and Tourism Office showed that visits to the US from overseas fell 11.6% in March compared to the same month last year. Air travel from Mexico dropped 23%.

While this came before Mr Trump’s statement this week, industry experts believe visitors were becoming agitated by the president’s hostile attitude to other countries, including his attempts to take over other nations and reports of tourists being arrested at the borders. They fear that after confirming his tariffs this week the anti-US sentiment will only get worse.

Some of the steepest declines are expected from Canada, where citizens have been angered by Mr Trump’s demands that the country should become the 51st state and his hiking of tariffs on trade between the two countries. Canada was the largest source of visitors to the US in 2024, with more than 20.2 million, according to US government data.

There are accounts of travellers cancelling trips to concerts and ski-ing holidays in the US. A big fall in Chinese visitors is expected if the current stand-off over tariffs is not resolved any time soon. Wolfgang Georg Arlt, the CEO of the China Outbound Tourism Research Institute. He calls it the “Trump Slump.”

All told, Tourism Economics expects US spending by international visitors to drop by $9 billion this year. USA Today reports that  In 2024, spending by international visitors generated $2.9 trillion in economic output. It supported 15 million jobs, from the more obvious hotel workers to indirect services like taxi drivers, according to the US Travel Association. Canadian travelers alone spent $20.5 billion, and just a 10% reduction could mean a loss of $2.1 billion.

The UK has updated its travel advice for the US, warning visitors they could face ‘arrest or detention’, after a British backpacker was held in a US immigration detention centre for nearly three weeks, before being deported.

Rebecca Burke, 28, was handcuffed and detained on a visa violation at the border with Canada after she attempted to make the crossing into the US on 26 February .

The US ‘enforces entry rules strictly’ and those who do not abide by them could be detained, the Foreign Office says.

The travel industry says UK visitor numbers to the US increased 5% year on year in the first two months of the year, but trade leaders are keeping a watching brief on whether recent developments will have any impact on demand.

A total of 515,700 UK visitors crossed the Atlantic in January and February, with the increase consistent with full-year 2024, when 4.04 million UK travellers equated to a 4% rise on 2023.

Travel Weekly reports that the numbers are still well short of the 4.8 million who visited the US in 2019, although the UK is still the largest overseas market by a considerable margin.

Brand USA vice-president for global trade development Jackie Ennis said recent conversations with partners suggested around 80% were trading at or above 2024 levels.

However, she confirmed concerns had been raised in some markets about the impact of the Trump administration’s approach to international trade and said exchange rates and US living costs were still cited as the primary barrier to growth.

“I think holding (visitor numbers) steady this year will be a success given exchange rates, but while growth from the UK has appeared modest, we are still talking about significant numbers,” she said.

Meanwhile, Barbara and Rick Wilson from Dallas, Oregon, who were visiting Paris told the BBC they felt a sense of shame about their president’s behaviour.

Before leaving his hotel, Mr Wilson had taken a small piece of black tape and covered up the Stars and Stripes flag on the corner of his baseball cap.

“We’re sick about it. It’s horrible. Just horrible,” he said.

Chris Epps, 56, an attorney from New York who was visiting the Louvre, had decided to remove his New York Yankees hat.

“I left it in the hotel. People might come up to us, treat us differently,” he said.

The Scottish Greens are calling for a planned visit to the UK by Mr Trump should be cancelled.

Co-leader Lorna Ms Slater said: “The proposed state visit is looking more ridiculous and misguided with every passing day. There is nothing to be gained by grovelling to Donald Trump and giving him the trappings and prestige that he desires.

“Time and again he has proven he cannot be trusted and has even inflicted tariffs on the UK. What kind of message does it send if we roll out the red carpet for him at the same time as he is doing that?”