The U.S. Travel Association says the United States is falling behind in the search for vital foreign visitors.
“The total direct spending value of the travel industry in the United States is $1.3 trillion every year, and almost $200 billion of that comes from international visitors,” U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman said last week at the USTA’s annual IPW event, this year held in Chicago. “Yet over the last decade, America has lost ground in the global travel market.
“To reclaim our share, we must deliver a stronger, more seamless experience that meets the expectations of today’s international travellers.”
The American Society of Travel Advisors says President Donald Trump’s announced travel bans are a real problem.
Last week, the U.S. government announced that 36 additional countries must meet compliance requirements within 60 days to avoid potential travel bans. This is on top of bans already in effect for 12 countries and restrictions for seven more. While national security must always be a priority, ASTA says broad travel bans create consequences that ripple across the industry.
The Grand Canyon is one of the iconic sights in the U.S.. JIM BYERS PHOTO
“Sweeping, country-wide travel bans are a blunt instrument accompanied by sweeping, unintended consequences—hindering legitimate business, discouraging visitors who strengthen our economy while simultaneously discouraging Americans from traveling abroad,” said ASTA President and CEO Zane Kerby. “We urge U.S. policymakers to pursue balanced, thoughtful solutions that uphold both our safety and our ideals while allowing the travel industry to thrive in an increasingly competitive environment.”
There’s also, of course, the U.S. bombing of Iran. Many analysts agree it’s a long-overdue move on the part of the U.S., and even Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has made supportive comments. But there’s no doubt it has sparked further anger against the States in many parts of the world, and that won’t help bring in foreign visitors.
Canadians Souring on Hawaii?
Meanwhile, a new study by the Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism finds Canadians are looking less favourably on trips to the Hawaiian islands due to the political rhetoric in Washington D.C.
The department recently released its visitor satisfaction study for the first quarter of 2025. The results come from a survey of recent visitors from eight markets, including U.S. West, U.S. East, Japan, Canada and Europe.
The study found that 85.2% of Canadian visitors rated their Hawaii experience as excellent, while 12.5% said it was very good. Those are very, very good numbers for any destination.
But there’s also considerable cause for worry, as only 54.8% of Canadians said they’ve “very likely” to return to Hawaii. That’s a big drop from the first quarter study results of 2024, when 68% of Canadians said they’re “very likely” to return.
Hapuna Beach on Hawai’i Big Island. JIM BYERS PHOTO
For the 2025 study, 19.5% of Canadians said they’re “somewhat likely” to go back, while 8.3% said they’re somewhat likely to skip a return visit. A full 13% said they’re “very unlikely” to return. That means more than one-in-five are somewhat or very unlikely to visit Hawaii again soon.
Travel Weekly said the 2025 “very likely to return” numbers are the lowest in the last 10 years, and that’s a problem for Hawaii tourism as Canada is Hawaii’s second largest international market, behind only Japan.
Politics seems to be a major reason for the change. Last year’s study found that Canadians’ top reason for not returning was that Hawaii is “too expensive” (60%). This year, Canadians said they’re less likely to return because of the political climate (45%), high cost of travel (30%), long-distance travel (12%) and travel restrictions or relations (12%).
The Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism recently published visitor stats for April of this year. The report said 36,381 visitors arrived from Canada that month, down 6.6% from April of 2024 and down 35.9% from 2019.
Still, there were 833,219 visitors to the Hawaiian Islands overall in April 2025, up 7.9% from April of 2024. Visits from Japan were up 3.4% over last year, while visits from the western United States were up a very solid 14.3%.
I have no intention of slowing down my visits to Hawaii. I hope the same goes for my fellow Canadians, but that doesn’t appear to be the case.
