President Donald Trump’s immigration stance has begun to discourage foreign visits to major U.S. cities, threatening to cost billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.
New York, the nation’s most visited city by people overseas, predicts such trips will drop more than 2 percent this year to 12.4 million, the first decline after eight consecutive annual increases. Los Angeles and Miami may also experience decreases.
Trump’s Jan. 27 ban on travelers from seven mostly Muslim nations, though halted in court, is taking its toll. The order, which caused chaos at airports, has sparked protests globally. High-profile customs ordeals, including the detention of Australian children’s author Mem Fox at Los Angeles International Airport and the interrogation of boxer Muhammad Ali’s son in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, are beginning to worry travel industry and city representatives.
“It’s the president’s ‘America First’ rhetoric, the trade protectionism, the Mexican wall,” said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics in Wayne, Pennsylvania, which analyzes data to predict and measure travel activity for clients in government and private industry.
Lost Revenue
International visitors spent about $250 billion in the U.S. last year, Sacks said. The U.S. will have about 4.3 million fewer foreign visitors this year thanks to Trump, which translates into $7.4 billion of lost revenue, according to his firm.
Sacks’s analysis included data from ForwardKeys.com, which reported that bookings to the U.S. from Western Europe decreased 14 percent from Jan. 28 to Feb. 4, compared with last year. From the Middle East, bookings were down 38 percent.
In New York, which attracts almost 30 percent of the nation’s foreign tourists, officials still expect an overall record of 61.7 million visitors, 1 million more than in 2016, due to rising domestic tourism. Though international travelers amount to 20 percent of all city visitors, they account for about half the total that tourists spend. Officials say 300,000 fewer international travelers will cost the city economy about $900 million.
“The last time we dealt with something like this was after the Iraq war and the financial crisis and worldwide recession,” said Christopher Heywood, global communications director for NYC & Company, New York’s marketing agency. The office plans a $3 million advertising campaign in western Europe and Mexico this year, he said.
‘Direct Result’