by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 6:30 PM ET, Wed April 9, 2025
The United States may be poised for a widespread slump in visitation from international travelers that extends well beyond a lack of Canadian travelers.
Visitors from countries that are historic allies of the United States are increasingly being deterred by the growing number of detentions at U.S. borders since Donald Trump has returned to office, according to a report from Bloomberg Businessweek.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) staff have been focusing greater energy in recent weeks and months on reviewing travelers seeking to enter the country, says the Businessweek report. And the extreme nature of some of the resulting detentions and entry denials may be rattling would-be visitors.
Several countries that are historic allies have issued advisories about visiting the United States in response to developments under the Trump Administration, which in addition to visitor detentions have also included abandoned recognition of transgender travelers. The list of countries that have issued advisories includes Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Finland, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
Hilton Beckham, assistant commissioner for public affairs at CBP, told Businessweek that while lawful travelers should not be worried about the stepped-up enforcement, those seeking to enter the country with fraudulent purposes or malicious intent should not even try to do so.
Concerns about navigating the U.S. border process are likely just a part of the problem.
It's been reported for several weeks now by media, including TravelPulse, that Canadians are increasingly choosing to forgo travel to the United States. The change comes in response to the Trump Administrations rhetoric about annexing Canada and making it the 51st state, along with the tariffs the U.S. president has implemented for Canadian goods.
The decision among Canadians to avoid the U.S. amid such policies has triggered a sea change in transborder bookings.
Data from aviation analysts at OAG, reported by TravelPulse in late March, shows that from April to September of 2025, transborder bookings for Canadians seeking to visit the U.S. are down more than 70 percent compared to 2024.?OAG called that startling decline in Canadian visitation a collapse in what was once a booming source market for the United States.
Reached for comment regarding the troubling picture emerging surrounding international visitation to the U.S., industry experts had mixed responses. The evaporation of Canadian visitors in particular, does not bode well for the U.S. economy.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, over 20 million Canadians visit the U.S. each year, so any drop in travel from our neighbors to the north means a significant impact to the travel economy, Julian Kheel, founder and CEO of Points Path, a platform that helps travelers use frequent flyer miles to book trips, told TravelPulse. U.S. airlines have also seen softening domestic demand in recent weeks, which could lead to a double whammy as both Americans and overseas visitors cut back on U.S. travel
The Coconut Traveler, a Hawaii-based travel company specializing in luxury custom journeys to the Hawaiian islands experienced a robust start to 2025, including from Canadian travelers. There was renewed demand for both luxury travel accommodations and private experiences across the Hawaiian islands.
That positive momentum, however, has evaporated over the past few months.
Within days of the administrations talk about Canadas annexation, we saw our first Canadian booking fall through, Debbie Misajon, owner of Coconut Traveler told TravelPulse. The [travel] agent stated that her [Canadian] clients felt uncomfortable and uneasy planning a trip to the USA with all thats going on in our politics with Canada.
Those Canadian travelers opted to go to Portugal instead of Hawaii, says Misajon. And thats not all. The Canadian travel agent also shared fears with Misajon that some Canadian airlines may begin suspending flights to U.S. destinations amid the growing political tensions between the two countries.
Tim Hentschel, co-founder and CEO of HotelPlanner, a travel technology company, said his platform has seen Canadian bookings for U.S. hotels halved in 2025 compared to 2024. Additionally, bookings on the platform from German travelers have declined by 60 percent.
At the same time however, visitation from other international source markets appears to be increasing. For instance, U.S. hotel bookings from British and Irish travelers have ticked upward by over 30 percent compared to 2024, according to Hentschel.
Travel is down slightly year-over-year to the USA, but it could be due to a strong dollar, high inflation, and retaliation to tariffs, Hentschel said. People tend to travel with their pocketbooks, and where the currency is good, right now the U.S. does not have that value.
International travel insurance provider Insured Nomads has yet to witness any decline in visitation to the U.S. But that reality could be influenced by the reception international visitors receive at U.S. borders moving forward, a company executive told TravelPulse.
We are seeing a continued demand, steady and not decreasing, for Europeans coming to the USA for both leisure and business travel,? Insured Nomads CEO Andrew Jernigan said. Whether the dynamic shifts depends on the actions of CBP employees. Are we a hospitable nation or a angry and hostile host?
If there are more mistakes made at the point of entry for the United States with ongoing reports of travelers being detained or altogether rejected, the appeal of visiting this country is likely to suffer both over the short-term and for years to come, Jernigan predicted.
The long-term damage could last for a generation and not just a season, he said. Negative experiences on a trip make a lasting impression.
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