The foreign tourist boycott begins, while companies are preparing for impact

Anacortes, a small coastal town in the state of Washington, generally makes the tourists' bustle during the summer months.

But local business owners like Kaia Matheny are Suffer for less pedestrian traffic – and a financial blow – this year like Tensions around trade And concerns about immigration policy pushes foreigners to reconsider the United States as a travel destination.

Matheny is the co-owner of Adift Restaurant, a restaurant restaurant at the table at the nautical table in downtown Anacortes. The city, a footbridge to the San Juan Islands, is a two -hour drive south of Vancouver.

She has seen sales falling in the middle of fewer Canada customers, which is usually the United States '' high source international visitors. The air and land arrivals of Canadians dropped by 14% and 32%, respectively, in March compared to the same period in 2024, according to Tourism Economics.

A sharp drop in pedestrian traffic between foreign tourists should persist during the summer, according to data. Matheny is “suspicious” about what it will mean during the high season, which usually starts in June.

Tourism “will not be what it is usually,” said Matheny. “We are going to cut down the listening and get the most out of it.”

Tourism is a big one export: Foreign visitors spent more than $ 180 billion here in 2024, more than all combined agricultural exports, said Geoff Freeman, president and chief executive officer of the US Travel Association.

However, international visits to the United States fell 12% from year to year in March, according to Oxford Economics.

It is not only Canada: visits to Western Europe, Asia and South America – historically of the highest travel markets in the United States – are also down by two -digit percentages, according to the US Travel Association.

The data suggest that weakness will persist during the summer.

Air reserve for summer trips abroad in the United States are about 10% from the same era last year, according to Tourism Economics, which is affiliated with Oxford Economics. (These were reservations made in March.)

Canada and Mexico are worse, show the data. Canada's summer reservations in the United States are more than 30%, for example.

“Foreign visits to the United States are the largest service exports in the country and the prospects have quickly bored,” wrote Ryan Sweet, chief economist in the United States in Oxford Economics in a research note published in May.

The loss of international tourism should cost the US economy for $ 10 billion this year compared to 2024, said Adam Sacks, president of Tourism Economics. The US Travel Association sets potential loss at $ 21 billion even higher in 2025, if current travel trends continue.

“It's alarming,” said Freeman. Many companies and destinations “are counting on the international visitor, in particular”.

The withdrawal of tourism seems to be “more an American problem at the moment” rather than a wide world weakness in travel, because other regions see a positive growth in tourism, said Lorraine Sileo, the main and founding analyst of Phocuswright Research, a market research company.

Interior tourism is not about to take over – the market slowed in 2025 and the trend of “revenge trip”, which had Americans powered to travel Due to the repressed request after the locking of COVVI-19, was widely played, she said.

“I do not think that everything that everything is misfortune and gloom for the American travel industry,” said Sileo. “But it will be a difficult year.”

Many factors underlie the drop in international visitors, have said travel experts.

On the one hand, President Donald Trump has announced several tariff cycles, arousing fears of a world trade war and increasing average import rights to the higher level Since the early 1900s.

Commercial wars are “intrinsically combative” with the international community, said Sacks.

At the beginning of April, China issuing A risk alert for tourists heading to the United States, citing the deterioration of economic relations and internal security. Several European nations Also recently issued American travel advice, citing reasons such as increased security and potential of borders problems around travel documents.

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Trump has also attracted Canadian citizens and legislators through Repeated suggestions that Canada becomes 51^st US state, experts said. Likewise For Greenlandwhich is part of Denmark.

“It's also time to choose Canada,” said former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during a speech in February. “This could mean changing your summer holiday plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historic sites and tourist destinations that our big country has to offer,” he added.

The research carried out in March and April of Canadians for trips to the United States fell 50% compared to 2024, according to Beyond, a data supplier on the world market for short-term rental.

“We saw an almost immediate drop in Canadian research activity after the new prices broke out in February,” said Julie Brinkman, CEO of Beyond, in an email. “While the interest in the United States has dropped, Mexico has seen a 35% increase in research. That said, travelers are not canceled – they choose new destinations.”

Anecdotes on social media supports this notion.

“Proud to say that we have canceled 3 American cruises over the next 2 years and that we will rather spend a vacation in Europe and Canada”, a commentator of Reddit wrote recently.

Concern Lacted to American immigration policy may be the most consecutive development in recent months, experts have said.

“Whether right or not, a perception is installed that more people are detained, more devices (are) searched and that legal travelers (are) expelled in their country of origin,” said Freeman. “It creates a lot of fear.”

Nationally, small and medium -sized commercial profits has already “strongly deteriorated” in the middle of the slowdown in travel, said Aaron Terrazas, an economist in Gusto, a pay and benefits supplier.

The share of profitable “tourism” companies fell to 32% in April 2025, against 41% and 43% in April 2024 and 2023, respectively, according to Gusto. The category includes tour operators, condos or time sharing agencies and ticket or booking agencies.

The share of profitable “accommodation” companies fell to 36%, compared to 44%and 45%, according to Gusto. The category includes small hotels and motels, guest houses, cottages and cabins, parks and motorhomes.

Slower customer traffic – and lost income – are the main culprits, rather than an increase in the expenses of inflation or labor costs, said Terrazas.

Erosion of profitability and income is “unusually clear and unusually sudden, especially for a period of the year when we normally start to see travel,” said Terrazas. “There is no obvious reason why domestic travel would collapse so strongly and suddenly in a single month, while for international trips, there are more obvious explanations.”

The longer the slowdown continues, the more coastal companies will be forced to make difficult choices and potentially reducing staff, said Terrazas.

Financial losses come at a time when the United States has not returned to pre-pale travel levels, pressure on businesses that depend on tourism, Freeman said. The United States hosted 72 million foreign visitors in 2024, less than 78 million in 2019, he said.

While non-residents explain Less than 10% of all American tourist requirements, it is much more “lucrative,” said Freeman.

The average visitor abroad spends more than $ 4,000 per person per visit, eight times more than average American tourists spend at the national level, said Freeman. The average Canadian and Mexican tourist spends $ 1,200 per visit.

Fewer trips abroad will have a disproportionate impact on certain areas.

Las Vegas; Los Angeles; Miami; New York; Orlando, Florida; And San Francisco, for example, explains most of foreign tourists, said Sweet of Oxford Economics.

While New York has a significant and diversified economy that can probably absorb a loss of tourism without entering the recession, the same is probably not true for places like Las Vegas or Honolulu, he said.

“These savings are very, very sensitive to tourism,” said Sweet. “This is their main economic engine.”

So far, Matheny, co-owner of Adift Restaurant, has experienced monthly sales 4% compared to last year-not a “enormous” decrease, but a “notable” decrease, she said.

The restaurant had to reduce its purchases by an equivalent amount, she said. This in turn harms the local anacortes' local economy, because the restaurant is supplied by most of its food in local farms and fisheries – also harming their results, Matheny said.

“This is a community impact,” she said.