Trump’s Travel Ban may have led to decreased interest in travel to US

Global Business

Trump's Travel Ban may have led to decreased interest in travel to US

The White House has now issued new travel restrictions to the United States from six Muslim-majority countries.

CGTN’s Karina Huber reports on how the administration’s first attempt had unintended consequences on the travel industry.

Online travel firms said, following the administration’s first executive order restricting travel to the U.S., interest in traveling to the U.S. plunged.

Bookings and flight searches from the United Kingdom to popular U.S. destinations fell sharply, according to global travel site kayak.com.

And the firm said lack of interest in traveling to the U.S. had a knock-on effect. Hotel room prices in Las Vegas and New York fell up to 32 percent.

“In one week after the executive order was issued for the travel ban, there was $185 million worth of lost travel bookings in the business travel market,” Global Business Travel Association Executive Director Mike McCormick said.

Businesses in New York City are especially vulnerable. The city’s tourism marketing office expects the number of international visitors to fall by 300,000 this year. The office says the drop is due to Trump’s rhetoric.

“We’re concerned and we’ve come out against it. We think that you need to basically balance security with openness and you can’t be seen as a country that wants to keep certain types of people out,” TravelPulse.com founder Mark Murphysaid.


Tamar Jacoby explains what Trump’s travel ban means for tourism, travel industries

For more on how U.S. President Donald Trump’s news executive order will impact the tourism and travel industry in the U.S. and abroad, CGTN’s Rachelle Akuffo spoke with president and CEO of ImmigrationWorks USA, Tamar Jacoby.