Asian tourism to the United States is dropping after Donald Trump’s reelection to a second term and his crackdown on border enforcement.
According to a CNBC Travel survey, almost 80% of Southeast Asians said they are less interested in visiting the U.S.
The survey revealed that one in four South East Asians said they are losing appeal in traveling. They are more concerned about potential discrimination, actions by the Trump administration and gun violence than they are about costs.
Despite concerns over safety, some survey respondents, especially from Vietnam and the Philippines said they were more interested now in visiting the U.S. than they were six months ago.
Zilmiyah Kamble, senior lecturer in hospitality and tourism management at James Cook University in Singapore said this may be because of large amounts of Vietnamese and Filipino communities in America. According to a 2024 report from the Pew Research Center, it estimated that Filipinos were the fourth largest immigrant group while Vietnamese were eighth.
“It could be because of family connections who live there,” said Kamble. But there’s also “the aspirational factor and the soft power of U.S. culture, through TV shows, that still is very attractive.”
Singaporeans were the least interested in spending time in the U.S., with 55% of saying they were less interested now than they were last November.
A Tourism Economics report from February also cited “polarizing Trump Administration policies and rhetoric” as a factor in travel cancellations, projecting a 5.1% decrease in inbound tourism. Previously, Tourism Economics predicted a 9% increase.
“The negative sentiment shift is anticipated to be sustained by an evolving mix of Trump administration factors, including geopolitical friction on trade and national security policies, charged rhetoric and adversarial posturing,” said Adam Sacks, the president of Tourism Economics.
The U.S. tourism industry will be impacted by the expected 10% drop in international visitor spending, right after experiencing record numbers in travel and tourism.
Marta Soligo, professor at UNLV and director of Tourism Research at the UNLV Office of economic development, points to The World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)’s 2024 Economic Impact Trends Report, which showed the US as the world’s top travel and tourism market. Additionally, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics projected that the US economy will add more than 800,000 jobs in the leisure and hospitality sector.
“Such numbers help us understand the importance of the sector in the US, showing that a decrease in tourism from top-origin countries could significantly damage the US economy,” Soligo said to BBC in March. “The consequences of these issues can impact both large US-based corporations, such as hotel chains, and small businesses alike.”
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