International tourists fall, but Americans go abroad

Caroline Smith, accounting director from Verona in New Jersey and her husband took two children to Italy for an Easter break this month. On the Spanish stairs in Rome, they fell into another family from their city. She said that two other families in the same area also visited Italy.

Families are part of an emerging trend in a global tourism industry worth $ 11 trillion: Americans travel abroad in crowds, while the number of visitors to the United States is falling.

Foreign guests of the United States by Air fell by almost 10% in March from the same month a year earlier and almost 13% from Pandemia to 4.54 million people, in accordance with the data of international trade administration, part of the trade department.

Easter week last year in March, which resulted in a change of holidays this year. However, US citizens flying abroad increased by 1.6% compared to March last year and are 22% compared to 2019 to 6.56 million travelers.

The imbalance may get even more deepening than $ 50 billion Between what the US generate through travel and tourism services, and what Americans spend abroad. This is a problem for the American tourism industry, which costs about $ 1 trillion a year. The US Travel Association on January 9 stated that it is expecting an increase in expenses by over 12% from international tourism in the United States this year.

In this crossing of land borders, incoming US guests fell by 14% in March since last year, an industry group announced on Thursday. He said that if the trend maintains that the US could lose $ 21 billion in exports related to travel. (Travel expenses from abroad in the USA are calculated as export).

He -Again, off home Trade warLoud arrests of visitors, as well as owners of visas and permanent residents, together with the president Donald TrumpRhetoric about taking over such countries CanadaAnd a strong American dollar for most of this year and travel warnings did not help to raise the demand from international travelers.

“We must make the US a place where they want to go” American Airlines CEO Robert ISOM said in an interview for “Squawk Box” CNBC on Thursday. He repeated other travel leaders, saying that the visa approving the process should be improved.

JPMorgan warned that a decrease in expenses for traveling foreigners in the USA may deduct about 0.1% from the gross domestic product this year.

“This indicates a potentially another channel that should be taken into account when assessing the impact of tariffs on business,” he said. “Fears associated with stopping foreign guests, sometimes accidentally, only combine this effect.”

“The agenda of President Trump, which made America rich, safe and beautiful, benefits both Americans and international guests,” said the spokeswoman of the White House Anna Kelly in the e-mail statement. She said that the administration “manages efforts to show everything that makes America great, introducing global sporting events, including the World Cup and the Olympic Games to the USA …”

Samuel Engel, a senior vice president of the ICF consulting company, said that “there is no doubt that foreigners think the US is less hospitable.” Another question is: Does hesitation about traveling to the USA from abroad now appear in international business trips.

“Business People does not contain transactions in the face of uncertainty,” he said.

United Airlines Last week, reservations of international passengers from Europe fell by 6%, while people from Canada fell by 9% year on year. Delta aircraft He said he could see a similar phenomenon.

But the appetite of American consumers on international trips helps to alleviate the blow of smaller international tourists and the weaker than expected demand during domestic travel in the US for some companies, such as United and Delta, which cut out flights in the United States this year.

“I traveled around Europe a lot before Kidami, so I tried to do the same with my family when children are older,” said Smith, 44 years old, who has a 7-year-old and 11-year-old. “In 2024 we went to Spain, and Portugal in 2024, partly, because the flights are short, compared to Greece, which is on the list.”

Grace Cular Yee, travel advisor who owns the Anaanasa7 agency in Lansdowne, VirginiaIN She said that many of her clients are considering international travels more than national ones, because they want to spray on a trip to graduation, because their children have largely missed high school celebrations during Covid.

“This is the main milestone for the whole family,” she said, adding that while many travelers receive ideas from social media, more Americans are also inspired by television programs, such as the latest season of “The White Lotus”, which was imprisoned in Thailand. She said that she recently planned a trip to France to graduate from high school-daughter school because her daughter loves the series “Emily in Paris”.

United said that advanced reservations at the beginning of this month are stable, and premium-car sales increased by 17%, while international demand increased by 5%.

President of Delta, Glen Hauenstein, is the optimist that the trend will continue and said that the sale of cash for international travel is ahead of the same point last year.

“Sales, which yesterday appears in the door, which we record today, because cash is very strong for international for summer until September, October,” he said at the call of profits of April 9, adding that international sales increased this year.

Many working Americans and pensioners have advantage with a recent market hustle and bustle, but wealthy and aging travelers, especially on the expensive front of the aircraft, help compensate for it.

“Being a demographic boom, I can say it without fear of revenge: there is only enough time to go to Europe or almost enough time to go to Australia or Japan,” said Hauenstein at the call of earnings. “So you have the effect of wealth in which this group of pensioners is richer than any other group even at the latest summary and want to do things.”

It is not clear whether the withdrawal of consumer expenditure at the back of the plane, or even the softness of corporate travel growth is a sign that they will also weaken high -class, international recreational travel reservations. For now, the labor market remains strong.

“Everyone's life is not fully disturbed, but everyone's life is now more fragile,” said Engel ICF. “The way people manage uncertainty is that they stop their decisions.”

Correction: Hauenstein spoke on the phone on April 9. Earlier version of this date.