U.S. on track to lose $12.5B in tourism revenue in 2025: WTTC

The United States is on track for a terrible tourism year.

According to new data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC), which was shared with Bloomberg, the country is set to lose US$12.5 billion in travel revenue in 2025, with visitor spending estimated to fall under $169 billion by year’s end.

The numbers represent a decline of around seven per cent in visitor spending year-over-year, and a decline of 22 per cent since tourism reached its peak in the U.S. in 2019.

Out of 184 global economies analyzed by WTTC in conjunction with Oxford Economics, the U.S. is the only one projected to lose tourism dollars this year.

“Other countries are really rolling out the welcome mat, and it feels like the U.S. is putting up a ‘we are closed’ sign at their doorway,”  WTTC President and Chief Executive Officer Julia Simpson told the outlet. 

The U.S. travel and tourism sector is the biggest sector globally compared to any other country, worth almost $2.6 trillion,” Simpson said, citing WTTC and Oxford Economics data.

According to the data, direct and indirect tourism represents nine per cent of the American economy.

The sector also employs 20 million people and creates $585 billion in U.S. tax dollars each year—seven per cent of all tax revenue the U.S. government receives.

Canada's role

Canada plays a role in the decline. U.S. President Donald Trump’s confrontational posture toward Canada has sparked widespread backlash north of the border, forcing some Canadians to rethink their U.S. travel plans.

Travel from Canada to the United States continued to drop in April, according to newly-released U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data, with overall volumes down 15 per cent year-over-year.

In total, 5.1 million travellers entered the U.S. from Canada in April 2025, compared to six million during the same month last year, CBP’s data shows.

The most dramatic decline occurred at land borders, where volumes dropped a staggering 26 per cent, falling from 3.9 million to 2.9 million.

Statistics Canada paints a similar picture.

According to preliminary StatCan data published Monday (May 12), the number of returning Canadian residents and non-residents to Canada by air and automobile fell for the third straight month to 4.5 million in April, down 15.2 per cent compared to the same time last year.

When it came to Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. specifically by automobile, the number declined to 1.2 million in April, a steep decline of 35.2 per cent from the same period in 2024. It was also the fourth month in a row of year-over-year declines.

2030 recovery

The WTTC now forecasts that it will take until at least 2030 for U.S. tourism to recover to pre-COVID levels.

The industry has also taken note of proposed legislation that would raise the cost of the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), which is required of all travellers who plan to come to the U.S. from countries that participate in the Visa Waiver Program, Simpson pointed out.  

It is currently $21 per traveller but could rise to $40 if the legislation is adopted.  

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