Experts predict uncertainty for US tourism following Trump victory
Travel and tourism experts are predicting an uncertain and difficult time for inbound US tourism in light of today’s election result.
Euromonitor published a paper this week outlining the impact of a victory on either side and said a Donald Trump victory ‘represents the worse of the two scenarios’ due to fears over his foreign policy.
It says Trump’s America-centric platform, his threat to ban Muslims or residents of terrorism-afflicted countries, and to build a wall to separate the US and Mexico, will hit the travel and tourism industry.
It pointed to a recent report by the Council on Foreign Relations, a US foreign policy think tank, which estimated a travel ban on Muslims to the US could cost up to $71 billion per year and up to 132,000 jobs.
The report also said Mexico tourism, which is the second largest source market for inbound travelers to the US behind only Canada, would also be hit.
The report said companies like Airbnb, which reports that 3 of its top 10 cities in Latin America by number of listings are in Mexico, and Expedia, which has invested heavily in recent years to adapt its booking strategy to appeal not just to inbound US travelers to Mexico but also Mexican residents, would be among those negatively affected.
Euromonitor also warned that Chinese travelers, tipped for the greatest growth globally of outbound travelers, would likely be similarly disillusioned with the US should the two countries enter a trade war.
"Shopping tourism, a major driver of inbound leisure travelers to the US, would likely be negatively affected by increased tariffs on foreign goods – a key driver of shopping tourism is apparel and accessories, little of which is manufactured in the US," it added.
Meanwhile, Trump’s ‘repeated verbal attacks and alleged physical assaults on women’ and Republican vice-president Mike Pence’s efforts to delegitimise homosexuality as governor of Indiana, would also hit both of these fast-growing markets, said the report.
Headlines today from two British national newspapers
The British media is already reporting that the number of UK visitors is likely to drop after a travel agent poll showed 20% of Brits said they will not visit the US under a Trump presidency and 30% said they would think twice.
But others argued that the weakening of the dollar against the pound would bring prices down and make it a more affordable and therefore attractive destination to overseas visitors.
Many US travel trade executives are currently in London for World Travel Market, where the election result has become a key issue of debate in the business sessions and is a key topic of conversation among exhibitors and visitors.
Trump Hotels are among the exhibitors and many visitors have been visiting the stand to take selfies.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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