Foreign visitor numbers to the United States continue to decline, according to the most recent data released by the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO), suggesting that the fall in international interest in holidaying in the US that began in 2025 is still showing no let-up.
The latest NTTO figures reveal that overseas visits (not including arrivals from Mexico and Canada) are down 5.7% year-on-year to September. Arrivals from Western Europe, the most important overseas source market for US tourism stakeholders, are down 8.7% for the year to date.
The drop in visitors to Uncle Sam has been ongoing since the start of 2025, and commentators have dubbed the decline the “Trump Slump,” since it commenced with the re-election of President Donald Trump in January of that year. Trump’s well-documented belligerence towards outsiders, tariffs on foreign goods, and threats to annex Canada and Greenland are widely seen as having dampened tourist appetites around the world.
Across 2025, four million fewer visitors went to the States than in 2024 (68 million compared to 72 million), and tourist spending fell by $8 billion, marking the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic that the US market had shrunk. The phenomenon triggered stark warnings from the US Travel Association that hundreds of thousands of US jobs could be at risk. The trade body has condemned both the “self-inflicted” damage caused by Trumpian policies such as high visa fees and entry restrictions, as well as slamming social media campaigns that called for travel consumers to boycott the US.
As stories emerged about pensioners who had saved for the trip of a lifetime, for example, only to end up held in detention centres for weeks, national governments around the globe released a series of travel alerts, noting the difficulties some visitors were having at the border, even when in possession of the correct visa documents.
It should also be noted that the strength of the US dollar could have driven some prospective visitors to choose alternative, better-value vacations. US stakeholders in iconic destinations such as New York and Las Vegas have slashed prices in a bid to win back spending, but the decline continues. After calls from Canadian politicians to stand firm against US tariffs, Canadians in particular appear entrenched in their determination not to visit the US or spend money there as frequently as before. It’s a self-perpetuating issue, as some airlines have reorganised schedules away from US cities, answering tourist demand to go elsewhere and reducing the number of available US-bound seats in the process.
It was hoped, however, that the US sector would benefit in 2026 from the country’s role as co-host nation to the Men’s FIFA World Cup, alongside Mexico and Canada. Initial NTTO figures for the tournament season reveal that international visitor arrivals to the US did increase by 2.7% compared to June 2025, reaching 5.4 million visitors. The NTTO has predicted that the total figures for 2026 would see a 3.2% rise compared to the previous year. With the release of September’s sobering data, that forecast is now in doubt.
