Did you know that Truthout is a nonprofit and independently funded by readers like you? If you value what we do, please support our work with a donation.

Since Donald Trump’s second inauguration, the number of international travelers visiting the United States has fallen by more than 5 percent. The number of Canadians visiting the country has plummeted by more than 20 percent.

All told, the fall-off in international tourism has translated into a decline of $8.4 billion in tourists’ spending in the U.S.

The World Travel and Tourism Council has estimated that 80 million more people traveled internationally in 2025 as compared to 2024. Yet, with horror stories circulating of tourists being arrested and sent to immigration detention centers for weeks or months, and of travelers having to hand U.S. border agents access to their cell phones and laptops, none of that tourism boom is filtering down to the U.S. And would-be tourists may grow even more leery if Trump succeeds in implementing his proposal to force many of them to disclose the last five years of posts on their social media accounts.

Many Canadians are outraged at Trump’s continued attacks on their country and by his repeated declarations that Canada should be annexed by the U.S. And many Europeans are horrified by the U.S.’s turn toward a nativism that in some ways resembles European fascism from nearly a hundred years ago. Put simply, an awful lot of people the world over are voting with their feet and their wallets; they are simply choosing to go elsewhere and spend their tourism money in countries that don’t make foreigners feel so unwelcome and scared.

For the travel industry, which generally operates on thin margins, the soccer World Cup was supposed to be a tonic. Hoping to boost the event, FIFA, the international soccer governing body, went out of its way to sweeten the deal for Trump; it gave him a golden replica of the World Cup trophy and awarded him a gilded “FIFA peace prize” in place of the Nobel for which he so loudly yearns.

If ICE Shows Up at the World Cup, Essential Service Workers Are Ready to Strike

Earlier this year, the tourism industry seemed to expect all of this FIFA sycophancy to pay off. In the 16 host cities, spread across Canada, the U.S., and Mexico, hotels raised their prices for World Cup stays by an average of more than 300 percent.........

© Truthout