by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 4:35 PM ET, Fri July 11, 2025
It has been widely reported that Canadian visitation to the United States has been plummeting amid President Trump’s new tariffs and his talk of annexing our neighbors to the north.
But it’s not just Canadians who are apparently put off by President Trump’s policies and rhetoric. A new survey conducted by CNBC reveals that nearly 80 percent of Southeast Asian travelers say the United States is “losing its appeal as a travel destination.”
According to the survey, such sentiments are being driven by fears surrounding potential discrimination, actions by the Trump administration and widespread gun violence in the United States.
A ranking of the fears expressed by Southeast Asians with regard to visiting the U.S. shows the prevailing fears in this order:
- Concerns about discrimination/treatment of Asian travelers: 60%
- Actions by Trump Administration: 54%
- Gun violence: 53%
- Costs: 41%
- Tariff announcements: 38%
- Border detentions: 37%
- Election of Trump: 34%
- Visa requirements: 32%
- Travel advisories by my government: 15%
The survey further indicates that one in four Southeast Asian travelers
said their interest in visiting the country declined specifically over
the past six months.
Conducted by market research company Milieu
Insight, the survey involved 6,000 international travelers from
Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia
and took place from May 22 through June 10. Almost half of those who
participated in the survey have previously visited the United States at
least once.
The CNBC survey follows on the heels of a YouGov
report published in March, which indicated that since January 2025,
global “buzz” and “impressions” of the U.S. as a travel destination have
declined significantly.
New Report on the Decline of Canadian Visitation
Meanwhile, new data released yesterday by Statistics Canada shows that visitors to the United States from
that country continue to drop precipitously.
In June 2025, the
number of Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the United
States totaled 1.3 million, a steep decline of 33.1 percent from the
same month in 2024, according to Statistics Canada. June 2025 also
marked the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines in
visitation to the United States by Canadians.
Also in June, Canadian-resident return trips by air from the United States dropped 22.1 percent to 363,900.
Canadian travelers have been opting for other destinations instead of the United States, including increasingly visiting Mexico and the Caribbean.
The
decline in visitors to the United States from Canada has been widely
attributed to new U.S. tariff policies that are harmful to the Canadian
economy, along with President Trump’s talk of making Canada part of the
United States.
The across-the-board drop in international visitors to the United States
has raised concern among economists who underscore the critical
financial benefits of tourism for the U.S. economy. International
travelers spent $254 billion in the US last year.
An April report
from the International Trade Administration (ITA) showed that arrivals
of non-citizens to the United States by plane have declined by more than
11 percent since March 2024.
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