The number of European travellers going to the US has fallen as political and economic tensions have risen under the administration of US President Donald Trump.
Data from the International Trade Administration – compiled by UK newspaper Financial Times – showed the number of visitors to the US from Western Europe declined by 17 per cent in March 2025 compared to March 2024. In the preceding few months statistics had still shown a moderately positive development.
The drop was most pronounced in the cases of Denmark and Iceland, where the number of arrivals to the US decreased by more than 30 per cent. That followed Trump’s call for Denmark to hand over Greenland to his administration.
In January 2025, a poll of 1,000 Danes found 46 per cent of respondents considered the US to be a “big threat” to Denmark.
Visitor numbers also fell from most other Western European countries with Austrians, Germans, Norwegians and Spaniards seeing declines of more than 20 per cent compared to March 2024. For Britons, the fall was less pronounced at around 15 per cent.
A contributing factor may have been news reports of detentions of foreign travellers trying to enter or leave the US. In March 2025, Germany and the UK issued corresponding travel warnings for their citizens.
On average, international travel to the US was down 12 per cent year-on-year in March 2025, according to the National Tavel & Tourism Office (NTTO).
In March 2025, the Tourism Economics institute had already revised its US inbound travel forecast from 9 per cent growth in 2025 to a 5 per cent decline.
The fall was bad news for the US tourism industry, which accounted for about 2.5 per cent of GDP.
Despite that, international tourism only made up around one fifth of total US travel spending in 2024, with the rest made up of domestic travellers’ spending.
The actual picture may be bleaker as the effect of Trump’s tariffs has not yet been reflected in the statistics.
China issued a travel advisory for the US on April 10, telling its citizens to “fully assess the risks of traveling” there.
According to tourism news website Travel Weekly on April 11, “China was the US’ top-spending overseas market prior to the Covid-19 crisis”.
