Revised data from the U.S. Travel Association paints a more pessimistic picture of inbound tourism, showing the Trump Slump is a reality.
The Association has revised downwards initial data from its Travel Trends Index results.
The biggest monthly declines came in February 2017, down 6.8%, after the initial executive order banning travelers from certain Middle East countries, and continued its downward spiral in March (8.2%).
"Sure enough, the international travel segment has been far weaker than what was initially shown," said David Huether, U.S. Travel’s senior vice president for research.
The revised figures for the Travel Trends Index come after collating data from several other sources including the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel and Tourism Office, IATA, OAG, and Sabre.
Declines were recorded in four of the seven months of data so far available.
There was a minor increase in arrivals in April although that has been attributed to the busy Easter holiday period.
"Inbound travel to the US already went through one ‘lost decade’ after 9/11," said U.S. Travel CEO Roger Dow.
"It took a sustained national policy effort to return to the pre-9/11 level of travel exports, which only happened last year. If we don’t want to give back all of that progress, the time to act is now."
