As summer approaches, global travel is ramping up, with tourists flocking to countries like France, Japan, Mexico and Brazil. But noticeably absent from many travelers’ itineraries is the U.S. Travel companies executives are raising concerns that volatile trade policies and increasingly hostile rhetoric under the Trump administration are driving a decline in inbound U.S. tourism.
“We absolutely have seen a decline in popularity of foreign travelers coming to the U.S.,” said Ellie Mertz, chief financial officer of AirBnb, during the company’s quarterly earnings call earlier this month. “It’s not necessarily that people don’t want to travel—they are just using different destinations.”
In December, research firm Tourism Economics projected an 8.8 percent increase in international arrivals to the U.S. this year, along with a 16 percent surge in visitor spending. But last month, the firm slashed its forecast, now anticipating a 5 percent decline in inbound travel—translating to an estimated $9 billion in lost spending.
A dwindling interest in the U.S. is especially pronounced among Canadians, according to Mertz. “Canada is the most obvious example, where we see Canadians are traveling at a much lower rate to the U.S., but they’re traveling more domestically,” said the executive, who noted that Canadians are also venturing abroad, just not the U.S.
Expedia, which also owns travel companies like Hotels.com and Trivago, has reported a similar trend. Inbound travel to the U.S. declined 7 percent during the first quarter of the year, said Scott Schenkel, the company’s chief financial officer, on a recent earnings call. Travel from Canada alone plunged nearly 30 percent.
“We’re still continuing to see pressure on travel into the U.S.,” said Expedia CEO Ariana Gorinon the same call. “Europeans are traveling less to the U.S. but more to Latin America.”
The ripple effects are being felt beyond the lodging and booking industries. Uber has reported losses tied to reduced inbound U.S. tourism. Prasanth Mahendra-Rajah, the company’s CFO, disclosed that weaker travel numbers have contributed to lower gross bookings per trip in 2025.
Hilton CEO Christopher Nassetta also flagged the decline during the company’s first-quarter earnings report, saying that visitation from Canada and Mexico dropped by “high single digits” over the last quarter.
In recent months, Canadian tourists have shown a marked reluctance to cross the border into the U.S. In March, 3.9 million travelers entered the country from the northern border—a 17 percent decline compared to the same month last year, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The year-over-year drop in February was even steeper, at 18 percent.
Visitors from other parts of the world are following suit. Preliminary data from the International Trade Administration shows that arrivals from Western Europe declined by 17 percent in March compared to the previous year.
As a result, U.S. businesses that depend on international tourism are beginning to feel the strain. A recent joint survey conducted by the American Bus Association, National Tour Association and Student & Youth Travel Association found that more than half of their U.S.-based members reported losing bookings, visitors or revenue from international travelers.
“The damage to business is happening now and will continue in the future,” said Catherine Prather, president of the National Tour Association, in a statement.
