NEW YORK // They’re calling it the Trump Slump. Not only is US president Donald Trump discouraging migrants from mainly Muslim countries, he is having a similar effect on all visitors to the United States.
The US Travel Association says the Trump administration’s immigration policies are hurting tourism.
Earlier this week, the tourism agency NYC & Company revised its 2017 forecast to predict a drop in inbound international travel to New York City, with 300,000 fewer visitors compared to 2016. I will be he first time visitor numbers to New York have dropped since the 2008 recession. The Philadelphia Convention and Visitors Bureau lost a booking for an international conference expected to be attended by 3,000 people. They decided to go to Canada or Mexico instead. In Canada, the Toronto Star newspaper has eencouraed Canadians to boycott the US for holidays while Mr Trump remains president.
ForwardKeys, which tracks travel bookings, reported in February that international trends in bookings to the US are down by 6.5 per cent compared with the equivalent period the year before.
“It’s known as the Trump Slump,” travel guru Arthur Frommer wrote last month on Frommers.com. He called it “an unintended consequence of the Trump-led efforts to stop many Muslims from coming to the US,” resulting in “a sharp drop in foreign tourism to our nation that imperils jobs and touristic income.”
Roger Dow, the president and CEO of the US. Travel Association said there was concern that many international travellers have interpreted Mr Trump’s policies as “wanting to discourage international visitors generally, not just those who pose a security risk.” Tourism generates $2.1 trillion for the US economy and supports 15.1 million jobs, with international visitors a key component.
The president’s initial ban on travellers from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen was suspended following a court order, but a revised executive order on visas and immigration is expected soon.
White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters insisted it was premature to say Mr Trump’s executive order had affected tourism to the US. But the US Travel Association urged the administration to make clear in any revised order “that the US welcomes and values legitimate international business and leisure travellers.”
In another blow for the US, the European parliament on Friday voted to end visa-free travel for Americans within the European Union for the next 12 months. The move follows America’s failure to stick to an agreement to allow citizens of five EU countries — Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Poland and Romania — to travel to America without visas.
* Associated Press