U.S. Inbound Market Keeps Hitting the Skids
The Commerce Department last week confirmed what tour operators and destination marketers already knew: Inbound travel to the United States is continuing to fall, in some cases precipitously. Tourism leaders quickly called on the administration to take action.
"These numbers are an undeniable wake-up call, and correcting this troubling trend needs to become a national priority," stated U.S. Travel Association CEO Roger Dow. "The travel industry will turn over every stone looking for all available policy options to better promote the U.S. as an international destination, and we stand ready to partner with the federal government to grow travel and American jobs and exports along with it."
NYC & Company, New York's tourism marketing organization, has long been warning that inbound numbers were falling. As the top U.S. destination for overseas travelers, with a nearly 30% market share, the city was a canary in the coal mine on this issue, and it raised warning flags as early as February.
New York now predicts it could lose up to 100,000 overseas visitors, the first drop in international tourism since 2009, during the height of the international financial crisis.
NYC & Company CEO Fred Dixon said last week that the Commerce data "underscores concerns we have had this year about the international tourism landscape in the U.S. New York City has been astutely attuned to this vulnerability for quite some time."
NYC & Company has long blamed the Trump administration for the drop in international arrivals. Trump's America-first rhetoric, continued attempts to institute a travel ban on Muslim-majority countries, restrictions on electronic devices on airplanes and the rollback of Cuba travel easement have put the travel industry at odds with the administration all year.
As far back as February, in the wake of Trump's first attempt at a travel ban, NYC & Company said it would "resist impediments to international travel" and changed its 2017 marketing message to "All are welcome."
Other destinations followed suit, including Visit California with its #AllDreamsWelcome campaign and Brand USA, which launched its "One Big Welcome" marketing campaign in June with signage in major U.S. airports expressing warm welcome messages in various languages.
But Brand USA CEO Chris Thompson last week said that while certain countries are impacted by the political climate -- Mexico, Canada and Germany being the top three in a study Brand USA solicited -- there are plenty of factors having nothing to do with the politics of the Trump presidency that were starting to affect travel in 2016.
"Even before the election and change of administration there were a lot of other headwinds that typically have a greater impact on people's ability or intent to travel," Thompson said.
The strong dollar seems to be chief among them, as well as economic weakness in certain large inbound source markets like Brazil.
"The fact that the dollar was at such high levels for such an extended period of time really affected travel over the last two years and coming into this year," Thompson said. "Even though it's somewhat moderated, we're still suffering a bit, and a there is a little bit of a hangover."
Source: Travel Weekly
