The US Travel Association predicts that worldwide tourism to America will drop from 12 percent in 2017 to 11.7 percent this year, cited by the Daily Beast. Worldwide tourism previously dropped by some 12.9 percent following the first year of Trump's term, according to the association.
In addition, recent research by technology firm Foursquare finds that, "America's ‘market share' in international tourism" decreased 16 percent by March 2017 compared to the previous year.
Foursquare "analyzed data gathered from over 50 million mobile users across the world. It studied the kinds of foot traffic associated with leisure travel and with business travel. Foot traffic refers to pedestrian visitors to a business or commercial site," cited by International Business Times.
The global travel industry is seeking the reason for significant decreases in tourism to the US.
Trump's inflammatory rhetoric and policies regarding travel, including his implementation on a total ban on Muslims traveling from Iran, Libya and Syria, are likely to have contributed to the drop in foreign tourism since Trump took office, according to reports.
Trump's Executive Order 13769, dubbed a ‘Muslim ban' by its many critics, was initially signed in January 2017, although it was later superseded by Executive Order 13780 in March.
In addition, Trump's rhetoric regarding immigrants has likely discouraged people from Central American countries from visiting the US, cited by Reuters.
Earlier this year, Tilo Krause-Duenow, owner of German tour operator CANUSA which specializes in trips to North America from Europe, told Reuters that US "politics is not helping us."
"The potential for the US could be much bigger. Prices have come down due to the currency weakening and we should have seen a much bigger increase in demand," he added.
According to recent data published by the National Travel and Tourism Office, overseas arrivals — compared to the same period in 2015 — began to decline in April 2016.
According to the data, April 2016 saw a 4.8 percent drop of overseas arrivals over April 2015. The sharpest drop, in May 2016, saw tourism fall by 7 percent compared to the previous year.
The National Tourism and Travel Office has not published data from October 2016 and later, suggesting that Foursquare could be missing part of the picture.
While blaming everything on Trump's overly aggressive bombast is the simplest explanation, other factors besides the president's actions are also likely contributing to a general decline in tourism to the US.
