‘Mind-boggling’: The U.S. is the only major country losing visitors, says travel chief — as China’s foreign entries jump 20%

While global travel has increased since COVID, fewer travelers are visiting the U.S. Inbound travel to the U.S. has actually dropped in the past two years.

Meanwhile, China has seen a 20% increase in foreign visitors thanks to its expansion of visa-free entry. It all leaves Geoff Freeman, the president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, frustrated.

“We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” he told Axios. “It’s mind-boggling.”

His organization’s goal is to attract 100 million international visitors a year by 2030, which Freeman says would add $81 billion in tourist spending and 400,000 jobs to the economy, according to a U.S. Travel Association press release.

The current reality: The U.S. gets 70 million international visitors a year, nearly 10 million less than 2018, during President Donald Trump’s first term. Freeman and a group of travel-sector CEOs met with the president in September to talk about ways to revive the sector and beat 2018’s numbers.

“President Trump already holds the record for international visitation to the United States — nearly 80 million visitors in 2018,” he said, according to the press release. “Now we have an opportunity to build on the momentum from a successful World Cup — and go much bigger.”

One of Freeman’s top priorities? Addressing a public relations problem.

“We need the government to partner with the private sector and send a clear message to travelers around the world that the U.S. is open for business,” Freeman told the New York Post.

Of passports, politics and PR problems

Right now, Freeman said, many international visitors are avoiding the U.S. out of fear they’ll be detained. News coverage hasn’t helped.

Last year, as PBS News reported, U.S. border agents arrested a German man on a tourist visa, shackled him and held him for 16 days in a detention center. A German woman visiting the U.S. was detained and spent six weeks in a detention center. Both returned to Germany.

Meanwhile, a French scientist was denied entry last year because officers observed negative texts about Trump on his phone, per The Guardian.

Incidents like this have had an impact on visits from Europe. According to NTTO data, visits from France dropped nearly 7% in 2025 to 1.6 million. German visits dropped over 11% to approximately 1.7 million.

Freeman told Axios that this year to date, visits from Germany and France are down 16% and 15% respectively. He fears many visitors are staying away due to misinformation.

“We can drive that focus of making sure we’re bringing in the people we want to bring in and making sure we keep out the people we want to keep out,” he told the Post.

Tariff tensions between the U.S. and its neighbors, Canada and Mexico, have not helped. Without naming Canada, Freeman told the Post, there are “individuals who are upset about various trade issues and have decided that they’re going to boycott the United States.”

Trump raised tariffs on many Canadian imports to 50% effective September 8 amid an ongoing trade war. While visits from Mexico have actually increased in the past two years, the same is not true of Canada.

According to CBS News, Canadians spent $13.3 billion in the U.S. in 2025, nearly $2 billion less than in 2024, and there were four million fewer of them visiting, per NTTO figures.