Trump Slump Fears Are Realized as Revised Findings Show Tourism Drop
Photo Credit: International inbound travel to the U.S. is declining, according to U.S. Travel, contradicting its previous projections. In this photo, President Donald J. Trump speaks during an event in Missouri. Flickr / The White House
Skift Take
U.S. Travel's initial forward-looking travel projections seemed too optimistic. Hopefully the industry can have a more serious conversation about averting a prolonged slowdown instead of hoping for the best and staying the course.
After several months of wondering — and what turned out to be some misplaced optimism — the United States is discovering a not-so-rosy picture for international inbound tourism in 2017.
The U.S. Travel Association on Tuesday revised earlier upbeat travel numbers to present a "substantially more pessimistic assessment" of travel to the U.S., warning of "major storm clouds for the inbound international travel market."
The organization debuted a Travel Trends Index (TTI) calculated by Oxford Economics last year, with the goal of anticipating future changes in travel demand and tracking travel growth over time. Throughout 2017, it has shown strength in both international inbound travel and domestic business travel that was a bit unexpected given the political situation in the U.S.
With the revised results out Tuesday, U.S. Travel said international visitation actually contracted in four of the first seven m
