US Travel Industry Badly Hit By Cancelled European Bookings

[PeterRS]

Last Friday US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the most inane of comments:

“'If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,' he told reporters in Brussels." Funny! I was always taught that in making public statements about any touchy subject you rolled out only good news - even though it may not be not so good!

Rubio's stupidity has not stopped the fall-off in tourists from Europe to the USA already furious at Trump's behaviour in office aligned to his tariff tactics. Fear of detention by US Immigration authoriites has only made the situation worse.

"After forecasting a 5% dip for inbound travel to the US this year in February, travel forecasting group Tourism Economics has revised its projections, telling CNN Travel that it now expects that figure to almost double to 9.4% . . . Summer hotel bookings from European travelers for Accor properties in the US are also down a whopping 25%, CEO Sébastien Bazin said in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV. Jean-François Rial, CEO of France’s leading luxury tour operator Voyageurs du Monde, said that ever since Trump’s inauguration in late January, bookings for US travel among his wealthy French clients have dropped a “colossal” 20%. In the 30 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve never seen anything like this for any destination. It’s huge,” he told CNN Travel.

It's not just that Europeans are chosing other destinations. Many who have already booked, have cancelled those bookings despite losing their siginificant deposits. Yesterday Forbes also highlighted the fact that European tourism to the USA was down 17% in March compared to the same period last year.

The US National Travel and Tourism Office is no more optimistic. “'Trump Administration policies and pronouncements are resulting in a negative sentiment shift toward the U.S. among travelers,' wrote analysts at Tourism Economics, which revised its 2025 forecast for a 9% loss of inbound foreign tourists after initially predicting a 9% jump. That 18% swing could be the beginning of a long-term decline, with the analysts adding, 'We expect the negative impact on international travel to the US to be strongest in 2025, but it will likely persist in degrees through the remainder of Trump’s second term.'”

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/travel/european-travelers-skipping-us-trips/index.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/04/09/european-travel-to-us-plummeted-in-march/

[Keithambrose]

5 hours ago, PeterRS said:

Last Friday US Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the most inane of comments:

“'If you’re not coming to the United States to join a Hamas protest, or to come here and tell us about how right Hamas is, or … stir up conflict on our campuses and create riots in our streets and vandalize our universities, then you have nothing to worry about,' he told reporters in Brussels." Funny! I was always taught that in making public statements about any touchy subject you rolled out only good news - even though it may not be not so good!

Rubio's stupidity has not stopped the fall-off in tourists from Europe to the USA already furious at Trump's behaviour in office aligned to his tariff tactics. Fear of detention by US Immigration authoriites has only made the situation worse.

"After forecasting a 5% dip for inbound travel to the US this year in February, travel forecasting group Tourism Economics has revised its projections, telling CNN Travel that it now expects that figure to almost double to 9.4% . . . Summer hotel bookings from European travelers for Accor properties in the US are also down a whopping 25%, CEO Sébastien Bazin said in a recent interview with Bloomberg TV. Jean-François Rial, CEO of France’s leading luxury tour operator Voyageurs du Monde, said that ever since Trump’s inauguration in late January, bookings for US travel among his wealthy French clients have dropped a “colossal” 20%. In the 30 years I’ve been in this business, I’ve never seen anything like this for any destination. It’s huge,” he told CNN Travel.

It's not just that Europeans are chosing other destinations. Many who have already booked, have cancelled those bookings despite losing their siginificant deposits. Yesterday Forbes also highlighted the fact that European tourism to the USA was down 17% in March compared to the same period last year.

The US National Travel and Tourism Office is no more optimistic. “'Trump Administration policies and pronouncements are resulting in a negative sentiment shift toward the U.S. among travelers,' wrote analysts at Tourism Economics, which revised its 2025 forecast for a 9% loss of inbound foreign tourists after initially predicting a 9% jump. That 18% swing could be the beginning of a long-term decline, with the analysts adding, 'We expect the negative impact on international travel to the US to be strongest in 2025, but it will likely persist in degrees through the remainder of Trump’s second term.'”

https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/09/travel/european-travelers-skipping-us-trips/index.html

https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/04/09/european-travel-to-us-plummeted-in-march/

Certainly  I am reconsidering visiting the US, but I do have friends and relatives to see.

[floridarob]

43 minutes ago, Keithambrose said:

Certainly  I am reconsidering visiting the US, but I do have friends

You have friends 😳

[Moses]

Europeans just afraid to be in the middle of action of radical Dems...

[reader]

Both @PeterRS and I have called attention to falling airline bookings and falling stock prices in the past few days. What a difference a day makes.

 

Airline stocks can turn on a dime for several reasons that have caused Warren Buffett to avoid them as they make poor long-term investments. They're subject to fuel costs, the wealth effect, the movement of the S&P index and political crisis. In short, they can change on a dime.

The only investors who make money on them are day traders who plan to own the stock for the day--or even just minutes--before selling.

[Keithambrose]

3 hours ago, floridarob said:

You have friends 😳

I think so, last time I looked....

[vinapu]

6 hours ago, Moses said:

Europeans just afraid to be in the middle of action of radical Dems...

AI produced pictures seems to be getting better and better

[PeterRS]

After more than 30 trips and with good friends in one of the coastal cities (New York) and in middle America (Louisville) whom I have regularly visited, I now have no desire to return. Loathing of Trump and his actions is only part of the reason, the ghastly and increasing profliferation of guns being one other. Scenically there are still parts of the country I would like to see, but there are also other parts of the world. I'll concentrate on those.

[bkkmfj2648]

4 hours ago, PeterRS said:

increasing profliferation of guns being one other.

and this is why I left the USA back in 1999 - when I moved to Italy.

A dear friend was killed at gunpoint to his head when he would not give up his wallet in Denver.

After the funeral - many of our friends in common - told me that they were going to get their gun licenses as a result of that incident.

I replied - NO - I am leaving this country.....

[PeterRS]

I'm certain you must have enjoyed Italy. I have a good friend slightly older than I who used to work for the large Beaverbrook Group of newspapers in the UK. In 1974 - yes, as early as then - even journalists with just a couple of years there were offered early retirement if they voluntarily left the organisation. Charles, who had always loved Italy, took the cash and moved to Piacenza not far from Modena. All his career he taught English. Whenever I started visiting Italy he would try to meet me.

One of the joys of those meetings was his deep knowledge of wherever we met. Another was his even deeper knowledge of Italian cuisine and restaurants - not the expensive or even moderately expensive places. The simple ones where you could visit the kitchen, chat with the chef and jointly decide what we'd eat. I recall in partcular one vsit to Venice where we had a very large 4-hour lunch accompanied by two litres of wine! We last got together when I visited him in 2019. He took me to a town about 30 minutes from Florence which he calls one of the loveliest in the country, Pistoia.

[bkkmfj2648]

3 hours ago, PeterRS said:

I'm certain you must have enjoyed Italy.

Yes, but I almost abandoned Italy in the 8th month - as I was living in the Rome Trastevere neighborhood, with all of the foreign students, where all we did was speak English 24/7 and we did not integrate into the larger Italian society.

So, around this time I put an advertisement in some of the local gay publications, that I was looking for an Italian roommate who did not speak much English (as I wanted to force myself to integrate and to learn Italian).  I interviewed around 30 Italian guys and only 1 satisfied my requirements.  Why?  The other 29 were looking to find freedom from living at home with their mothers - BUT - where the expectation was that I would fulfill the roll of their mother - that is; do their laundry, cook for them, do the shopping, and clean the apartment - as they were ALL what the Italians call:  Mammoni.  Many of them were well into their 40s and their mother's were still taking care of them.

The 30th guy, was great - as he was against the concept of "Mammoni", as he was from Sardinia (where his mother was) and wanted to live independently and have a chance to learn some English.  I met him in the mornings, afternoons, and evenings to see if we liked each other in all hours of the day. Then the BIG day came to decide if we would be roommates and he took me to Villa Pamphili, where he did his sport training and jogging.  He sat me down on one of the lovely park benches and told me that his decision was = NO.  I was shocked - we had been hanging out for about 2 weeks to decide if we could be roommates and he was perfect for me.  After interviewing 30 guys over this 2 month period I was devastated and I started crying.  He said to me, ti prego, smettila! - please stop it.

I asked him why he rejected me.  He said that I was too American.  Now this was early year 2000 and I had sold my house back in Colorado and invested it all into the crazy NASDAQ - Dot-Com bubble, so I was kind of cocky, as I could easily fart money in those years.  I was obnoxious.  And yes, I was too American.

So, I promised him to be less American (that was my goal after all) and I had some help from the universe when the Dot-Com bubble popped in March 2000 - when I lost 90% of my invested assets - which greatly humbled me.  Thank GOD that I had found this guy.  We lived happily together for 6 years - which were some of the BEST years of my life when I successfully learned to speak Italian, make jokes in Italian, go to cinema and see Italian movies, and dream in Italian.  

Learning their language gave me additional culture - because I started to use verbs for which we don't have direct equivalents in English - and when you find a verb that helps give words to a feeling that we don't have an easy equivalent in English - it is truly an amazing experience, because it feels that you are now growing with the ability to have feelings that you could not fully have prior.

--> I am not good at expressing this experience - but I am sure that many of you who are multi-lingual can understand this <--

 

[unicorn]

On 4/10/2025 at 10:19 AM, Moses said:

Europeans just afraid to be in the middle of action of radical Dems...

I doubt that anyone on this website is so stupid as to think that travelers are fearful of being at Tesla dealerships or Tesla charging stations at the wrong time, thereby risking injury. (Of course, I'm sure the vandals in these situations prefer to perform their vandalism when they think no one's around to see them) Anyone with at least 12 neurons in his brain can figure out that it's simply revulsion for Trump and his policies. I even know Americans born in the USA who've left the country until Trump leaves office. If I'd been eligible for Belgian citizenship, it would be tempting to live in the southern Brussels suburbs. 

[Keithambrose]

On 4/10/2025 at 10:19 AM, Moses said:

Europeans just afraid to be in the middle of action of radical Dems...

Total rubbish.

[Moses]

45 minutes ago, Keithambrose said:

Total rubbish.

Sure. Right after act of vanalism.