US Tourism Sector Set to Lose $21B Amid Global Travel Boom
The world is traveling more than ever — just not to the US. Between tariffs, tightened borders, and a visa system growing pricklier by the month, the US is on pace to miss out on $21B in tourism dollars this year... on top of last year’s $16.6B shortfall. With Stateside increasingly sidelined, hoteliers are feeling the pinch.
- US visits fell 5.5% in 2025 while global travel grew 4.7% — as Canada, long the bedrock of US inbound travel, saw visits plunge 21%.
- Chinese, German, and British arrivals also dropped by up to 13% this year — with Ecuador (+21%) and Hungary (+18%) filling the gap.
Full seats, empty beds: To rekindle growth, the World Cup was billed as a comeback tour. Instead, Tourism Economics counts only 1.2M international fans across 78 matches and 6M available seats, barely above a normal summer. About 80% of hoteliers report host-city bookings running below expectations, per the American Hotel & Lodging Association. Airbnb is the exception, with searches up 80% in host cities. Even with the world’s biggest tournament at home, the US isn’t expected to reclaim its pre-pandemic visitor count until 2029.
