Recent data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows a sharp dip in travel spending in the United States. According to a report released by the bureau on Tuesday, travel decreased by $1.3 billion in March. Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail also reports that the export of travel services, a measure of how much tourists spend while in the United States, saw one of the largest three-month drops in the past 25 years. The dip is only dwarfed by the effects of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the travel market and the COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration’s policies on tariffs and immigration have been widely attributed as the cause of the market plummet. Canadians have also notably been boycotting trips to the U.S. in opposition of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on the country and threats to make it the 51st state. “Tourism’s doing very well,” Trump said in an April 30 interview with ABC News. “We’re doing very well. We’re doing very well. Wait till you see the real numbers come out in about, in six months from now, wait till you see the numbers.”
