Bye Bye Miss American Pie
Following the presidential election, tourists are now turing away from the US
For hundreds of years, the US was considered the promised land, an escape from by poverty and lack of potential. In America, there seemed to be an abundance of everything, from land (for your very own farm) to more independent ways of living. Viewed from a European perspective, the US was where you went to reinvent yourself.
Many of the people who left Scandinavia, following the years of severe draughts of the 1860s, would never return. Others lived in the States for a few years, or even decades, moving back when they had amassed enough money to build a house in their hometown. These houses became manifestations of the belief that life could be improved by going to the States.
My grandmother was an immigrant; when she was only a few months old, she moved from Sweden to New York. She grew up in Brooklyn, but when the Great Depression hit, she and her mother had to return to Scandinavia, an event that would become her life-long regret. She never stopped wanting to move back to the country she considered her home. When I was a child, we would regularly travel to the American east coast, visiting cousins, aunts, and uncles who lived in New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire, and for a few years we also lived in the suburbs of New York City. The US was like a second home, where we had both family and lifelong friends.
Even before Donald Trump won the presidential election, the country’s image was tarnished. A series of strangely unnecessary wars, beginning with the war in Korea in the 1950s, followed by the Vietnam war and then the invasion of Iraq (using faked information to justify the attack) had damaged the country’s reputation, but the negativity surrounding these events was generally balanced out by the country’s strategic use of soft power. The concept was coined by Joseph Nye and refers to shaping the preferences of others through appeal and attraction. Culture is one of the main conveyors of soft power, and in the case of the US, films, TV-series and music have been especially effective in creating an attractive image of the nation.
The US is one of the top three most visited countries in the world, with 66,5 million visitors in 2023. However, following the political turmoil of the presidential election, the inbound travel to the US is now projected to decline by 5,5 percent in 2025 (instead of growing by nearly 9 percent, as had previously been forecast). Since Trump announced 25 tariffs on many Canadian goods, the number of Canadians driving across the border at some crossings have fallen by up to 45 percent on some days. This is important as Canada is the biggest source of international tourists to the US. Air Canada is reducing flights to some US destinations, including Las Vegas, as demand reduces.
But not everything is about politics. If it were, we would see similar travel restrictions on politically controversial destinations like the Maldives, Dubai, and Italy, though one could argue that as the news don’t focus as much on these countries, travellers are oblivious to the ideological context of the destination. The price of food, beverages, and hotels in the US have significantly increased in recent years, making it a very expensive destination as compared to many other countries, especially if you have to travel far. Travel from western Europe accounted for 37 percent of overseas travel to the US last year, but for many Europeans, a vacation in the US is simply too expensive nowadays.
It’s been years since I last visited my relatives in New England. The last time I was in New York, before the pandemic, I didn’t like it – my clothes reeked of pot after walking on the streets (the American fondness for smoking pot is over the top) and I found the price for food and clothes ridiculous. The magic was not there anymore. But just because the US has lost its appeal doesn’t mean that people are staying at home. Other destinations are seing a spike in interest; hotels in Bermuda have reported a surge in enquiries, and are predicting a 20 percent increase in revenue from Canadian visits. Europe too has reported increased bookings from Canada, with rental properties experiencing a 32 percent jump in summer reservations when compared to 2024 (which is also driving up the hotel prices in many popular tourist destinations).
Is this a temporary bump in the road for the US or the beginning of a larger shift? It’s too soon to say, but with anti-American sentiments growing, the trend will probably continue to increase, at least for the foreseeable future.