While travel has rebounded from its Covid doldrums, it’s facing some real headwinds this year, thanks to the proposed tariffs and shifts not only in climate but in attitudes toward tourists.
According to a CNBC report, one third of companies surveyed have changed, or are considering changing, their policies regarding travel to or from the United States. Global travel, however, may wind up less affected by the tariffs than other sectors as nations seek new trading partners. Overall, business travel is still set to top $1.6 trillion this year.
On the recreational front, travel seems to be one of the sectors that Americans are loath to cut from their budgets, although they are looking at more road trips at home and, as always, for deals.
Air fares, often the canaries in the coal mine, are up or down, depending on whom you’re reading. Meanwhile, the ruffled feathers generated by the tariff negotiations have some Americans worried about how they’ll be received abroad. (If our intrepid travel team’s experiences are any indication, just fine.) In turn, foreign travelers may be concerned about their reception here, particularly with two big events, the 2026 World Cup throughout North America and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, looming.
This year, New York City — the American mecca for international travel and the backdrop of Debbi K. Kickham’s Page 6 story on her Big Apple visit – expects 3.5 million fewer tourists. (You wouldn’t know this, however, from our July 11 tea at Berdorf Goodman, generously hosted by Westfair tea expert Ellen Easton, and our July 12 visit to The Metropolitan Museum of Art, also in Manhattan. On both occasions, the city seemed packed with visitors.)
The fascinating monkey wrench in all this may not be financial but environmental. Some southern Europeans are decrying the popularity of their homelands as tourists crowd their increasingly sweltering locales in summer. (We were in Greece and Turkey – see Page 11 – but in April. Jeremy Wayne visited Venice’s Lido – Page 13 — in September.)
Some are seeking colder climes, with Debbi Kickham reporting that Iceland seems to be on everyone’s bucket list, and so that’s where she headed on a Viking Cruise with husband Bill (Page 15).
Time, tariffs and trends will determine how many tourists get to fulfill their travel bucket lists.
