Via Semafor: Decline in tourism hits US economy.
Overseas visitors to the US are on track to drop by almost two million year-on-year, with even the FIFA Men’s World Cup failing to arrest the decline in tourism.
The slide is hurting the US economy, and as Axios put it, is partly “self-inflicted:” There has been a significant drop in visitors from US allies like Canada and several European countries, which have been a target of Washington’s trade war and taunts.
Meanwhile, China is attracting more visitors with its visa-free entry policies, and Japan’s weak currency is drawing in a record number of tourists.
“We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” the head of the US Travel Association said. “It’s mind-boggling.”
Actually, it need not boggle one’s mind. This is what happens when the president goes to economic and rhetorical war with allies whose citizens would otherwise happily travel here.
The most natural tourists in the world to the US are from Mexico and Canada, and yet we are approaching levels similar to when travel was almost shut down by a pandemic.
This is economic mismanagement pure and simple, and it directly emanates from the White House.
Xenophobia has real consequences.
Related stories:
- The Brennan Center: Trump Administration Will Collect Social Media Handles from Legal Immigrants and U.S. Citizens.
- The Irish Examiner: Irish tourist jailed by ICE for months after overstaying US visit by three days: ‘Nobody is safe’.
- Via Axios: Tracking the foreign nationals detained by ICE as tourists or U.S. residents.
- Via the AP: Weekslong lockups of European tourists at US borders spark fears of traveling to America.
If I were a foreign national, I would think twice before coming here.
Meanwhile, this evil stupidity is making life worse for Americans in the tourism industry.
