Hoteliers, Retailers Could Be In Trouble As Foreign Tourists Increasingly Stay Away From The U.S.
New data suggests international tourism to the U.S. is going to decline this summer. If it does, American hotels and luxury retailers stand to lose.
Travel consultant ForwardKeys said flight bookings to the U.S. this summer are down 3.5%, and location-tracking company Foursquare said 16% fewer international tourists visited U.S. leisure locations in March than last year, the Wall Street Journal reports. Data like this may be expected in an internationally weak tourism market, but experts told the WSJ the global tourism industry is rising. This projected slowdown in U.S. tourism comes several months after President Donald Trump moved to ban travel from several Muslim-majority countries.
Any decrease in international travel to the U.S. could seriously hurt hotels and luxury retailers. A March report from Tourism Economics said luxury retailers could lose an estimated $10.8B in spending if travel to the U.S. decreases, and experts projected a similar loss to the hotel industry should tourism decrease.
