The US isn’t the tourist destination it once was.
Visits to the US by international travelers declined for the eighth straight month in December, according to data released earlier this month by the National Travel and Tourism Office.
In 2025, visits to the US were down among 10 of the top 20 overseas tourist-generating countries, including India, Germany, and South Korea.
The decline is a sustained blow to the travel and tourism industries, which in 2024 supported more than 15 million jobs, and generated about $1.3 trillion in economic output — including $181 billion from inbound international travel.
Major tourism hubs like Las Vegas are seeing widespread layoffs due to the downturn, forcing workers to get creative with their career pivots. Business Insider reported earlier this month that laid-off hospitality workers contributed to a 55% increase in dancer auditions at a Las Vegas strip club compared to the prior six months.
It doesn’t appear the travel bug has gone anywhere — just that international tourists are avoiding the US.
In Australia, for example, overseas arrivals and departures data released Friday by the country’s Bureau of Statistics shows that international travel returned to pre-pandemic levels just before the lockdowns began in 2020. Australians travelling to Canada rose 4% in the last year, 10% more visited India, and visits by Australians to China and Japan rose 20% and 21%, respectively, but 3.2% fewer booked a trip to the US.
Fewer Canadian travelers are visiting the US, as well, opting instead to go further south to Mexico, Business Insider reported last April.
Complicating demand were ongoing trade frictions, tariff battles, and geopolitical unease, which helped fuel grass-roots boycotts of US goods and, in some cases, changes in travel plans.
European travel firms and analysts pointed to tariff-driven consumer backlash and growing anti-American sentiment as factors that contributed to early-year softness in bookings, even as demand showed signs of rebounding later in the summer.
Domestic travel has helped cushion the blow so far, with the US Travel Association projecting that domestic leisure travel was forecast to grow 1.9% to $895 billion in 2025.
However, if international visitors continue to stay away, destinations that depend on overseas spending — from iconic tourism cities to national parks — could feel growing pressure as the US heads into a high-stakes stretch of global events in 2026 and beyond.
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