Travelers can’t get enough of globe-trotting. But have they had enough of the United States?
According to the World Tourism Organization, a United Nations agency, the number of international tourist arrivals around the world reached 1.4 billion last year. That represented a 6% increase, and the organization forecast the number to grow by another 3 or 4% in 2019.
But in the first half of 2019, the number of international visitors coming to America has actually dropped nearly 1.7%. That’s according to preliminary data from the Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office, which shows slightly more than 37 million foreign travelers came to the country between January and June.
According to a forecast from the U.S. Travel Association, an industry trade group, the outlook for 2019 is for visitor numbers to remain just about the same as last year. Even if that holds true and the country doesn’t see a dip for the full year, the news is not good.
“It’s generally going to be under-performing global travel,” says David Huether, the group’s senior vice president of research.
There’s a grab bag of reasons for the downturn, observers say. The latest version of a monthly report from the U.S. Travel Association, out this week, warns that foreign visits to the country remain vulnerable.
“Ongoing global economic cooling, prolonged and expanding trade tensions, and uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration remain major risks to international traveler sentiment,” the report says.
The value of the U.S. dollar also remains strong, making travel more expensive for visitors from other countries, Huether says.