Skift Take
Some U.S.-based travel brands aren't overly worried about a potential Trump slump but Foursquare's data is an indication that they should be braced for some tough-going.
Foursquare claims that U.S. tourism is in dramatic decline, losing 16 percent market share of international arrivals from November 2016 to March 2017.
The decline, according to a Foursquare analysis, actually began in October -- when it looked like Hillary Clinton would be the next president and not Donald Trump -- as U.S. market share in international tourism dipped 6 percent year over year that month.
Data show that during this time, other countries' share of international tourism has been increasing as the U.S.' has declined [see chart below].
Official U.S. government data on international tourist arrivals hasn't been updated since August 2016. but Foursquare said its own data show foreign visitation has thinned out so far this year before and after President Donald Trump took office in January.
Foursquare earlier found that visits to U.S. Trump-branded properties were down last year.
We are not ready to take Foursquare's analysis at face value. The data may skew toward a tech-savvy demographic as it is partly based on people who opt into having their locations tracked through the company's Foursquare and Swarm apps.
But Foursquare's data contradicts reporting from most booking sites, hotels, travel associations and city and state destinations
