US Sees Sharp Decline in Foreign Tourists

The US tourism industry expected 2025 to be another good year in terms of foreign travelers. After all, the number of international visitors to the United States jumped in 2024, and some forecasts predicted arrivals from abroad this year would reach pre-COVID levels. But three months into the year, international arrivals are plummeting, per the AP.

• The federal government's National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures Tuesday showing visits to the US from overseas fell 11.6% in March compared to the same month last year. The figures did not include arrivals from Canada, which is scheduled to report tourism data later this week, or land crossings from Mexico. But air travel from Mexico dropped 23%.

• For the January-March period, 7.1 million visitors entered the US from overseas, 3.3% fewer than during the first three months of 2024. International arrivals from China in particular were down nearly 1%.
• The travel forecasting company Tourism Economics, which as recently as December anticipated the US would have nearly 9% more international arrivals this year, revised its annual outlook last week to predict a 9.4% decline.
• Tourism Economics expects some of the steepest declines will be from Canada, where President Trump's repeated suggestion that the country should become the 51st state and tariffs on close trading partners have angered residents. Canada was the largest source of visitors to the US in 2024, with more than 20.2 million, according to US government data.
• Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, a travel booking site, said leisure bookings to US destinations were down 40% in March compared to the same month a year ago. Air Canada has reduced its schedule of spring flights to Florida, Las Vegas, and Arizona due to lack of demand.

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