By Kavita Mistry 
Trump-era tariffs, rhetoric, and the new INR 250 visa fee have pushed US tourism into freefall, with international arrivals down 8.2 per cent, visitor spending set to fall INR 12.5 billion in 2025. The World Travel & Tourism Council projected ahead of Memorial Day that the US would be the only country among the 184 it studied where foreign visitor spending would fall in 2025.
Tourism Economics reported an 8.2 per cent decline of international tourist arrivals to the US in 2025 compared to a projected increase of 9 per cent in December, 2024. “Last December, the forecast projected an approximate 9 per cent increase in overall international arrivals to the U.S. for 2025”, states the report.
An earlier projected INR 184 billion in tourism revenue has fallen to INR 169 billion, according to Tourism Economics. This comes amidst reports of visa restriction, tariff threats, and Trump’s statements of the US claiming Greenland and Canada as its own.
A big country which has chewed off the US travel and tourism industry is Canada. The country accounts for 28 per cent of the total international tourists arriving in the US.
However, business travel remains relatively stable, and reductions are shown in leisure travel, which is the main cash cow.
The top ten countries which follow international visitors for business travel are:
Top International Destinations For Business Travelers In The First Half Of 2025
- United States
- Germany
- United Kingdom
- Canada
- France
- Spain
- Netherlands
- Mexico
- China
- Italy
According to The Travel. These figures project a decline in even business meets and visitors planning to invest in the country, which has increasingly distanced its populace quite openly from the rest of the world, with ethnic targeting of people.
Trump’s latest immigration rules, which have made it much harder for people to get into the US, have affected the economy with a staggering fall of INR 12.5 billion of travel down to INR 169 billion, spending in the US compared to INR 184 billion last year, 2024.
However, this has been amplified by the Trump-administration with Canadian immigration laws and tariffs and territorial occupation of Canada threats taken over the conversation.
Canadians are the most frequent entries to American land, every year, making up to more than 28 per cent of travel and the reduced number of air bookings from Canada is down 35-43 per cent year-on-year, according to Travel.
Canadian boycott slams border cities
Seattle also is projected to lose at least a quarter of its international visitors mostly from Canada, according to CNN.
Out of 184 countries in the world, The World Travel & Tourism Council suggests that the US is the only country which has seen decline in international travelers as of 2025.
Countries like China, and Columbia, have seen an increase in tourism revenue, with China gaining 10.3 per cent more revenue from travel compared to pre-pandemic levels adding 13.7 trillion yuan to the economy, according to World Travel and Tourism Council. Columbia saw a 6.6 per cent increase in international visitors in 2025, according to Finance Columbia.
CNN argues that the tariffs highlighted how US’ competitiveness was affected by the tariffs.
Only a few countries like France, Uzbekistan, and Argentina stated in a survey conducted by AFP/YouGuv declared the Trump-era policies not affecting their plans on a possible US visit.
The October 1 INR 250 visa integrity fee
The Biden administration had considered enhanced vetting fees earlier, but Trump’s Department of Homeland Security and State Department formalized this “visa integrity fee” as a way to cover costs of fraud detection, background checks, and enforcement against overstays.
How it works
An added amount of INR 250, is added on top of existing visa application fees. For many visa categories (e.g., tourist B1/B2, student visas, work visas).
The total cost would add up to around INR 442 for a visa, which makes it one of the highest visa costs in the world.
Impact on tourism: WTTC, and Tourism Economics estimates it could cost the US INR 25–29 billion in lost international visitor spending in 2025 alone, since the higher fees may discourage travel.
Projections from The World Travel & Tourism Council, cited by The Associated Press, showed a forecast of a decline of at least 8.2 per cent of international travels in 2025.
