Donald Trump has not been good for the U.S. tourism industry
U.S. tourism is hurting.
International tourists have been more likely to choose non-U.S. destinations, according to new data published by Foursquare.
U.S. share of international tourism started to decline shortly before the presidential election, with that fall accelerating into early 2017.
"Our findings reveal that America’s ‘market share’ in international tourism started to decline in October 2016, when the U.S. tourism share fell by 6% year-over-year, and continued to decrease through March 2017, when it dropped all the way to -16%. Currently, there is no sign of recovery in the data," wrote Foursquare CEO Jeff Glueck in a Medium post published on Wednesday.
That's just the most recent data point to show that the U.S. tourism industry, which generated $1.6 trillion in output in 2015 and supported 7.6 million jobs, is hurting under President Donald Trump. Online searches by possible travelers are down, as is revenue from airline flights.
Trump's policies have been directly responsible. His efforts to put in place executive orders restricting Muslim travelers from certain countries spurred thousands of immediate cancellations of trips — with companies warning about lasting damage.
One analysis projected a loss of $18 billion to the U.S. tourism industry over the next two years.
Foursquare's data provides one of the most comprehensive looks yet at just how bad the industry has been hit. The company used foot traffic data compiled from 50 million global users to find that the U.S. has been steadily losing tourism share over the last six months.
Credit: FoursquareThis decline is not even across all travelers, according to the Foursquare data.
"From our data, residents of the Middle East and Central/South America are avoiding the U.S. more than residents of Asia, Europe and elsewhere," Glueck said. "It goes without saying that some of the current administration’s most controversial policies have been focused on countries within the Middle East and Latin America, and that we’re seeing a greater impact in travel from these nations."
The total monetary impact on the U.S. tourism industry remains to be seen, but Foursquare found that the drop seen so far will have a relatively small overall impact — but one that will be felt by some companies already facing challenges, most notably retail.
"So though the impact may sound small, it could mean an additional 1–2% YoY sales hit to U.S. retailers already operating on thin margins and besieged by competition from Amazon, e-commerce as a whole, and a generally competitive and 'over-stored' economy. It represents significant damage to a hurting sector," Glueck wrote.
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