The return of the Trump administration continues to discourage foreign tourists

Canadians and Europeans continue to sulk the destination this summer, repelled, among other things, by the territorial ambitions and the migration policy of the American president.

The summer holiday season has officially started in the United States and the first official data suggests that America will attract fewer tourists. Canadians and Europeans in particular, who returned en masse to the United States after the Cavid pandemic, are absent at the start of summer.

A drop observed more generally by the American customs and border protection service which gives the figure of around 1.9 million foreigners arrived in the main American airports in the last four weeks. It is a drop of 6 % compared to the same period last year.

And flight reservations for the summer suggest that it will not improve. The flight reservations to the United States from Europe fell by around 12 % until August. And the fall is even more important for flights to the cities of California, San Francisco and Los Angeles as well as to the Washington capital.

To explain these reservations drops, there is clearly a Trump effect. Canadians represent the largest group of international visitors in the United States, about a quarter of arrivals. But Donald Trump wants to make Canada the “51st American state”, then there is clearly boycott of the neighbor for this reason. And on the side of Europeans, it’s a bit the same.

Travelers projecting long summer road trips in the American West, for example, say that the president’s instability does not reassure them and that, in general, they prefer to spend their money elsewhere in America, in other European countries, even in their own country. Many of those who had planned to come and spend their holidays in the United States also highlight the restrictive migration policy of the White House.

The travel and tourism sector represents around 3% of the total GDP of the United States, and foreigners contribute only for a tiny part. Specialists nevertheless predicted this year an increase of 16 % of the expenses of international visitors. They are now counting on a drop of about 5 %, a shortfall of $ 8 billion and a half billion.