US travel industry ‘working as well as any’ with Trump administration

The head of the US Travel Association believes the sector “is working as effectively with the Trump administration as any industry in Washington” but says he remains “very concerned” by a decline in international visitor numbers.

President and chief executive Geoff Freeman noted significant areas of progress with the current administration but admitted some “self-inflicted wounds” remained a source of frustration for the industry.

The UK market held steady in 2025, ending 0.5% ahead of 2024, but remains down on peak levels and was down 0.9% year-on-year in the first four months of this year.

However, the overall inbound market to the US was 5.5% down in 2025, to 68.3 million, with significant drops from source markets including Canada and Germany.

Freeman said: “We are very concerned. The US was the only [major] country in the world to see a decline in international inbound travel last year. We welcomed 11 million fewer people last year than we did in 2019.

“Our trade balance has gone from a $50 billion surplus in 2015 to a $70 billion deficit in 2025. We are leaving opportunity on the table, and that’s what we want to make sure we address.

“It’s something we’re working closely with the Trump administration on, and right now we’re losing pace.”

Freeman said there were a range of contributing factors to the decline, including exchange rates against many currencies and flight capacity and restrictions from Asian markets.

But he said challenges were exacerbated by “misperceptions of some US policies that are out there”, including fears of being detained at customs or having mobile devices seized and searched, adding: “The percentage of people to whom that is happening is exactly the same in the Trump administration as it was in the Biden administration.”

Despite highlighting misperceptions, Freeman admitted the industry remained frustrated at the “self-inflicted wounds” from the administration, including a yet-to-be-implemented $250 visa fee and proposals to allow customs officials greater access to social media history and extended family details during the Esta process.

“We’re doing everything we can to stop those policies, but they take on a life of their own, and they work against us,” he said.

“A combination of all those factors is hindering travel to the United States. It’s preventing us from fully capitalising on the potential of the World Cup and it’s certainly something we’re talking with the administration about.”

He added: “My fear is that we don’t capture those first-time visitors and they develop an affinity for other destinations.

“For the travel industry, [future growth] is relatively written [but] the only question is how fast and how high we’re going to grow.

“We see growth, but we also know there are 11 million fewer travellers then there were in 2019 and if we had just kept pace with global trends and maintained our market share, we would be well over 90 million visitors.”

Government engagement

Freeman insisted that despite challenges posed by geopolitical events and proposed government policy and rhetoric, the industry continued to work positively with the administration, including lobbying against proposals to reduce frontline border staff in so-called “sanctuary cities” and a plan to postpone the TSA PreCheck system during the most recent government shutdown.

He also said the association and its allies had forged strong two-way relations with a range of government departments to allow it to “disagree without being disagreeable”.

“We’ve made progress. I know the travel industry is working as effectively with the Trump administration as any industry in Washington, and there are concrete examples of that,” he said.

“I think there are example after example where this industry is a model for working with the administration.”

He added: “That doesn’t mean we don’t have issues we disagree on, but we have been successful at disagreeing without being disagreeable, maintaining a seat at the table and being seen by the administration as an industry that is honest, as an industry that is collaborative, and as an industry they can work with to achieve their goals.

“It is a case of choosing to focus on the issues of real scale.”

Freeman cited a range of positive policy decisions by the Trump administration despite criticism from many quarters, including reducing visa wait times, investing more than $12 billion in air traffic control infrastructure and the creation of a new tourism envoy role, filled by conservative commentator and prominent Trump supporter Nick Adams.

He said: “These are all positive steps in the right direction. They are all things the US travel industry has long promoted, and we are extraordinarily complimentary of the administration for pursuing them.

“Make no mistake, I hear from plenty of people in the industry who wish we were more in an attack posture and taking a more aggressive approach [but] our job is to get results.

“If going on the attack and being aggressive will get results, then that’s absolutely something we should pursue. If that won’t achieve results, then we need to find a different strategy, and I would suggest the strategy the industry has pursued is a strategy that is clearly demonstrating results even if you don’t like all the outcomes.”

He added: “In some respects, a lot of the cards are stacked against the industry. This is an administration that ran on sealing the border. For some there’s an ideology that they’re not sure they want foreign citizens in the United States.

“If you accept that as the reality, I think the industry should be proud of the outcomes it is achieving.”