The nation’s capital saw a disappointing fall of 5.3% in international visitor arrivals in 2018, which was dragged down by a slump in Chinese travelers.
The China market plunged 25%.
Despite this, Washington DC still posted an overall record in arrivals, thanks to a hike in domestic visitors.
Destination DC said a total of 21.9 million US residents visited in 2018.
China is the city’s top inbound market and Destination DC needs to have a constant presence to reverse the decline, says Elliott Ferguson, Destination DC CEO.
He pointed to ‘bright spots’ like a 27% increase in the length of stay of Chinese visitors.
As the seat of power, Washington is arguably the most susceptible to declines over geopolitical issues, and the escalating trade war with China has undoubtedly taken a toll.
The Chinese outbound market has increasingly taken a nationalistic tone, even without much prompting from the Chinese government.
Ferguson said Washington DC’s 2017 hosting of travel industry event IPW is still showing positive results with greater awareness among the global travel trade.
"The long term effect is they’re remembering what they saw, and they’re thinking about DC as they’re putting together their itineraries," he said.
