Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show a sharp drop in the number of UK travelers to North America in January, the month when Donald Trump became President.
While the overall number of Brits going overseas jumped 9% to 4.6 million in January, the number going to the US fell 17%.
The figures reflect fears that Trump’s election win would damage US tourism.
A Travelzoo poll undertaken before Trump’s victory found 31% said they would reconsider travel to the US following a Trump win, while 20% said they would definitely not go on vacation there.
The ONS said part of the drop could be explained by January 2016 being a particularly strong month for outbound trips to the US, but said there was still a significant drop.
The UK pound had also weakened against the dollar following the Brexit vote.
Based on previous years, the ONS said it would expect to see a rise in visitors to the US in January compared with December, but this year was an exception.
While 250,000 Brits traveled to the US in December, the figure fell to 230,000 in January.
In comparison, 276,000 traveled to North America in January 2016, either for business, leisure or family trips.
While travel to the US dropped, visits to Europe rose 12% and visits to other countries were up by 8% compared to January 2016.
