Archive September 1, 2025

As a range of policies put forth by US President Donald Trump’s administration have made tourists less likely to travel to the country, the number of foreign visitors to the country is still declining.

According to recently released preliminary government data, foreign visits to the US decreased by 3% year over year in July.

Since Trump took office in late January, a trend has been in place almost every month. The US has experienced a decline in foreign visitors for five out of six months.

Brazilian tourist Luise Francine, who is visiting Washington, DC, told Al Jazeera, “Everyone is afraid, scared. There is too much politics about immigration.”

Travelers from other parts of the world have been alienated by Trump’s tariffs, immigration crackdown, and repeated jabs about the US acquiring Canada and, according to experts and local officials.

According to Ryan Bourne, an economist at the Cato Institute, Trump’s rhetoric and policies are at the heart of the decline in tourism.

The president’s trade wars and some of the fallout from concerns about getting entangled in immigration enforcement can be blamed for the decrease, according to the statement.

Travel research firm Tourism Economics predicted last week that the US would experience an 8.2% decline in foreign arrivals in 2025, a decrease from its earlier prediction of a 9.4% decline, but well below the country’s total before the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to the company, “the sentiment drag has proven to be significant,” noting that airline bookings suggest that “the sharp inbound travel slowdown” of May, June, and July are likely to continue in the coming months.

Although the numbers for neighboring Canada and Mexico are not taken into account, Canadian visitors have been declining in particular. Tourism Economics estimates that there are fewer Canadians visiting the US this year than there were during the same time last year in 2024.

More Americans entered Canada in June and July in a significant U-turn, according to Canada’s national statistical agency.

Statistics Canada reported that this was the first time this had happened in nearly 20 years, with the exception of two months during the pandemic.

Visa integrity fee

Mexico, in contrast, is one of the few nations in the US to see an increase in tourism. According to US government figures, travel from Central America increased by 3 percent through May and that of South America, by 0.7%, compared to a decline of 2 % from Western Europe.

However, significant declines have occurred in nations that typically draw large numbers of visitors to the US.

Only two of the top ten overseas tourist-producing nations, Japan and Italy, experienced a year-over-year increase in July. Second-placed India’s viewership dropped by 5.5%, followed by China’s viewership, which dropped by nearly 14%.

A trade war and Trump’s (since-reversed) broadsides against Chinese students have raised concerns among Chinese tourists, while deteriorating relations between India and the Trump administration have turned out badly.

The US travel industry is plagued by rising travel costs, political uncertainty, and ongoing geopolitical tensions, according to Deborah Friedland, managing director of Eisner Advisory Group.

Trump has reined in some of the hard-liner measures that defined his first term since taking office for a second term in January, including a travel ban that targets primarily African and Middle Eastern nations, stricter visa approval regulations, and a rise in mass immigration raids.

Some people elsewhere perceived their own unwanted status as a result of the push for tariffs on foreign goods, which quickly became a defining feature of his second term.

Travelers from non-visa-waiver nations like Mexico, Argentina, India, Brazil, and China are hampered by a new $250 “visa integrity fee,” which will go into effect on October 1. According to the US Travel Association, the additional fee raises the total cost of the visa to $442, making it one of the highest visitor fees in the world.

According to Gabe Rizzi, president of Altour, a global travel management company, “any friction we add to the traveller experience will reduce travel volumes by a certain amount.” This will become a more urgent issue as the summer draws to a close, and we will need to factor the costs into travel plans and documentation.

According to the World Travel &amp, Tourism Council, international visitor spending in the US is projected to decrease from $ 81 billion in 2024 to $ 69 billion this year.

Due to the ongoing displacement and mass destruction caused by Israel’s war, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim al Khalili has visited some of the Gaza’s fewer schoolchildren who are able to attend classes.

Iran’s currency has sharply decreased again as the world’s powers push for resumption of UN sanctions against Iran amid stalled diplomacy and fears of war with Israel and the US.

In Tehran’s open currency market on Monday, the US dollar hit a price of more than 1.06 million rials, slightly higher than it had before Tehran and Washington mediated negotiations began in April.

The Iranian government and central bank have once more stated that the sharp decline in the country’s embattled currency is more a result of a psychological response to the country’s deteriorating political environment than a drop in economic activity.

The remaining European parties to Iran’s 2015 nuclear agreement, which includes France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, have triggered the “snapback” mechanism of the agreement, which would allow for the UN to immediately reimpose sanctions in exchange for restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran has now been given a one-month deadline to reach an agreement that could defer snapback by at least a year by the European allies.

The UN inspectors have access to the US’s nuclear sites, resume negotiations with the US, and be responsible for the country’s 408.6 kg (900.8 pounds) of highly enriched uranium, according to the IAEA.

Iran has claimed that the Western allies have demanded that the negotiations’ outcomes, not the starting point, be changed so they cannot be met. It has long maintained that its nuclear program is peaceful.

Iranian parliamentarians are also working on legislation to force Iran to renounce its nuclear weapons (NPT) and halt all cooperation with the IAEA if sanctions are reinstated.

IAEA inspectors were given this week’s authorization to inspect the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant’s replacement fuel, but they were not given further information because Tehran denounces the world’s nuclear organization for allegedly allowing Israeli and US airstrikes against Iran in June.

Tehran has also claimed that the European powers lack the legal authority to initiate the snapback process as a result of the US’s unilateral withdrawal from the landmark nuclear agreement in 2018 and the harsh sanctions it imposes on Iran.

Iran’s nuclear activities increased as a result of the sanctions, which were imposed by US President Donald Trump during his first term in office, by President Joe Biden, and then by Trump himself during his second term, increasing those efforts.

Other signatories of the 2015 nuclear deal that are opposed to snapback have also made an effort to coordinate their positions with Iran’s authorities.

The three countries’ foreign ministers released a joint statement on Monday, claiming that the move by the Europeans is “by default legally and procedurally flawed” and violates the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution that underpins the nuclear agreement. They also called on the parties to “abandon sanctions and threats of force” in order to address the root cause of the situation.

Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, claimed on Monday that the European powers are abusing the UNSC’s role as a “instrument of coercion rather than a guardian of global security.”

In a post on X, he wrote, “The urgent task is to restore international law and build upon it to give diplomacy the foundation it needs to succeed.”

At the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit on Monday in Tianjin, north of China, the leaders of Iran, China, and Russia met. Apparently, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian met for a two-hour meeting.

home crises

Despite the Western deadline, no breakthrough has been made, and Israel and the US have been making threats of additional strikes on Iran ever since the 12-day conflict ended in June.

Tehran’s currency market’s negative reaction reflects concern about the potential effects of reinstated UN sanctions on a nation that has endured years of severe sanctions from Washington.

UN sanctions would only worsen Iran’s isolation from international markets and make it harder to sell oil or other exports given that Iran’s inflation rate is still above 35 percent, one of the highest in the world.

Iran is also grappling with numerous domestic issues as external pressure mounts, in addition to decades of mismanagement and sanctions.

As a result of years of ageing and ineffective infrastructure, Tehran, as well as other cities, towns, and villages across the nation, have been experiencing daily power outages for months. Citizens have been frustrated by the interruptions, which also add insult to injury to industries that have been harmed by the sanctions.

The bustling capital city and other large areas of Iran are also dealing with a water crisis as a result of ongoing mismanagement and excessive use of water resources, as well as the growing droughts that have become more and more severe in recent years.

Internet speeds have been significantly slower and patchier than usual since Israel’s 12-day war ended, and the state has continued to block the majority of its websites and apps internationally.