Report: Trump Policies Hurting Tourism as Europeans Stay Home

U.S. immigration policy has reportedly triggered a sharp drop in visitors from Europe.

The number of travelers from western Europe who spent at least one night in the U.S. dropped by 17% year over year in March, the Financial Times (FT) reported Friday (April 11), citing data from the International Trade Administration (ITA).

From some countries — Ireland, Germany and Norway among them — travel declined by more than 20%, the ITA data showed.

This trend, the FT noted, threatens America’s tourism industry, which makes up 2.5% of the country’s gross domestic product. Some airline and hotel companies have warned of cooling demand for transatlantic travel and a “bad buzz” about visiting the U.S.

The number of overseas visitors to the U.S. fell by 12% year over year in March, the sharpest decline since March 2021, the middle of the COVID pandemic.

“In just two months [Trump] has destroyed the reputation of the U.S., shown one way by diminished travel from the EU to the U.S.,” said Paul English, co-founder of travel website Kayak. “This is not only one more terrible blow to the U.S. economy, it also represents reputation damage that could take generations to repair.”

The report said some of the reluctance is being fueled by U.S. immigration policy amid a rash of incidents in which overseas travelers were detained at the border.

Reports of those incidents led Gloria Sync, an artist and author in Nottingham, England, to call off a visit to San Francisco planned for next month.

“The borders seem unsafe,” Sync, who is transgender and said she was concerned about the “unwanted attention” her identity could bring at the border, told the FT. “I don’t know if I’ll ever go back, to be honest.”

The decline in EU to U.S. tourism comes as Americans are spending less on travel, with airline fares down 5.3% according to the latest Consumer Price Index figures.

Meanwhile, Delta Airlines warned last week of widespread uncertainty as it released its quarterly earnings.

“Consistent with our update last month, February and March reflected a much more challenging macro environment than anyone initially planned for,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said during an earnings call. “Coming into 2025, we were positioned for another year of strong growth. However, given broad economic uncertainty around global trade, growth has largely stalled.”