With huge fall in European traveler numbers to U.S., is American tourism in crisis?

The American tourism industry could be approaching crisis point amid a drastic fall in international bookings to the U.S.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, there has been a fall in bookings from neighbor Canada, after U.S. President Donald Trump's increasingly belligerent remarks about what he calls U.S. potential "51st state". Yet a reduction of 70 percent bookings reported on Tuesday by tourism magazine Travel and Tour World is a jaw dropping statistic.

New figures are also in from Europe and, while not quite as bad as cross-border travel from Canada, they are dreadful. 

The International Trade Administration (ITA) has reported an overall fall of 17 percent across Europe compared to March 2024. The figures among several individual countries were worse.

Denmark saw a reduction of more than 30 percent, perhaps predictably after Trump's threats to wrest control of Danish autonomous territory Greenland. Other European nations, including Germany, Ireland, Spain, and Norway, saw decreases of more than 20 percent.

In addition, cancellations for trips to the U.S. during the first quarter of 2025 rose by 16 percent, with travelers from Germany, France and the UK canceling at the highest rates.

Travel and Tour World blames the slump in European travel to the States on "growing concerns over tighter border control policies implemented during the Trump administration."

The total number of overseas visitors traveling to the US dropped by 12 per cent year-on-year in March. That's the steepest decline since March 2021 when the travel sector was reeling from pandemic restrictions, according to the ITA.

The U.S. tourism industry accounts for 2.5 percent of the country's GDP.

The UK's Financial Times newspaper quoted Paul English, co-founder of influential travel website Kayak, as saying that "In just two months [Trump] has destroyed the reputation of the US, shown one way by diminished travel from the EU to the US."

He warned: "This is not only one more terrible blow to the US economy, it also represents reputation damage that could take generations to repair."

Transatlantic routes are the most profitable in the world, especially in premium seats.

So why are the numbers so bad?

Reports of what could charitably be called "overzealous" behavior by U.S. immigration officials since Trump's inauguration have shaken the confidence of a growing number of European holiday makers.

A German-American man living in New Hampshire, Fabian Schmidt, was detained upon his return from a visit to Luxembourg on March 7 at Boston Logan International Airport in early March. His lawyer says Schmidt was taken to a Rhode Island detention center, stripped naked, placed in a cold shower and "violently interrogated." 

Schmidt's mother told NBC News she couldn't find out where her son is currently being held.

In another case a backpacker from Wales was detained at the Canadian border for almost three weeks before being permitted to fly home.

Other such cases have been reported and, according to Sébastien Bazin, chief executive of French hotel giant Accor, have created a "bad buzz" around visiting the U.S.

Travel firm Accor last week said its bookings for European visitors to the U.S. have fallen by 25 per cent.

The ITA says that in 2024 international visitors spent more than $253bn on US travel and tourism-related goods and services.