U.S. President Donald Trump's revised travel ban on citizens of six Muslim-majority countries will not reduce its impact on tourism, according to Taleb Rifai, the head of UN World Tourism Organization. "People don't go to places where they don't feel welcome," he added.
Reports indicate that foreign travelers from many non-Muslim majority countries have also been met with hostility by US officials upon arrival in the United States.
Mem Fox, author of children's books advocating tolerance and acceptance, was detained by U.S. immigration officials as she arrived in America to give a talk about the importance of tolerance and acceptance, the Washington Post reported. She said "the manner in which we were interrogated in public view about really private information was terrible. It was the insolence that was beyond mind-boggling.
Hopper, an app which uses data to predict and analyze airfares, says that its research indicates that searches for flights to the US between January 26 and February 1 by internet users from 122 different countries dropped 17 per cent compared to the first three weeks in January, according to media reports.
Trump's travel ban has already resulted in a worldwide 6.5 per cent drop in the number of airline bookings for travelers headed to the United States, according to Daily Mail.
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| Global Foreign Tourist Arrival Data: Americas' Marketshare 16% in 2015 |
Meanwhile, New York City projects it will see 300,000 fewer international visitors in 2017 than it did in 2016, a 2.1% dip, according to a report in USA Today. It's the first time that group of travelers has shrunk since 2008, according to NYC and Company, New York's tourism arm.
The US travel industry had nearly $250 billion in sales to foreigners in 2015 and had a $98 billion trade surplus, the most of any sector, according to MarketWatch. Without travel, the U.S. trade deficit would be about 20% larger, $600 billion instead of $500 billion.
It seems that President Trump's policies are not only hurting America's image abroad but also contributing to potential job losses in travel and tourism industry that employs millions of Americans. Such policies are more likely to hurt than help the "working class white" Americans who voted for Mr. Trump.
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