Wanted in the USA – Tourists: Businesses Want to Combat the “Trump Slump” and Get Tourists and Students Traveling to America Again

Tourism to the United States is down and businesses want to make tourism great again.  The United States has always been a prime location for foreign tourists, historically maintaining its ranking as the world’s most visited country. But with more and more tourists opting to travel elsewhere within the last year, the United States’ tourism appeal is shrinking.

This decline in tourism is largely thought to be the byproduct of the United States’ stricter immigration policies enacted under the Trump presidency. And it has business industries across the spectrum worried. In response, 10 business associations—including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Restaurant Association—have formed the “Visit U.S. Coalition” with the goal of reversing the trend.

The group was formed in January, following the release of an abysmal Commerce Department report that outlined the United States’ losses in travel over 2017.

Similarly, it has been reported that, in the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency, the number of foreign students studying in the United States dropped for the first time in five years, according to new data released by the federal government, a potentially troubling development for schools that have relied on those students’ hefty tuition payments to balance their budgets.

Experts have speculated that Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric during the 2016 campaign and since taking office would dissuade students from coming to the United States, but until now the evidence has been only anecdotal.

KJ