by Mia Taylor
Last updated: 7:50 PM ET, Thu October 1, 2026
The number of international visitors to the United States continues to decline.
The latest figures from the US Travel Association show that tourism from abroad fell 2% year-on-year in June, followed by even larger drops of 7% in July and 11% in August, according to a New York Post report.
The declines come even though the US served as one of the three host countries for the World Cup this summer, an event that was expected to be a major boost for the country.
Geoff Freeman, CEO of the US Travel Association, told the New York Post that the declines were shocking on the heels of what was largely viewed as a “PR victory” resulting from the FIFA World Cup.
Freeman told The Post that he attributes the dramatic visitation decline to “travel costs, tariffs and trade disputes, and false rumors about the US among foreign travelers.”
“Some of this is attributed to the cost of travel to the United States. Some of it is attributed to the difficulty of travel for Asian visitors who can’t fly over Russian airspace,” Freeman told The Post.
“Some of it is individuals who are upset about various trade issues and have decided that they’re going to boycott the United States,” he added.
Freeman said it’s even more concerning that visitors are staying away due to “inaccurate information they will be detained.”
“They believe that they’re not welcome in the United States, they believe things that are often untrue, and that’s where we need the government to partner with the private sector and send a clear message to travelers around the world that the US is open for business,” Freeman told the publication.
Visitation to the US plummeted by 11 million last year, and this year is poised to decline by another 2 million. That would represent a 20% drop from the country’s pre-pandemic tourism boom, per US Travel Association figures.
Freeman has spoken directly with the Trump Administration about the challenges the country’s tourism industry faces. Those conversations, which have included meetings with President Trump, led to agreement on a variety of potential actions to be taken.
The steps Freeman hopes to see materialize include improving underlying processes and perceptions of US tourism. He also hopes to protect funding in the nation’s budget for promoting US tourism and combating misinformation. Under the Trump Administration, the budget for Brand USA, a public-private organization charged with helping attract tourists to the US, was cut by 80%, from $100 million to $20 million.
Freeman has said that the travel industry's goal is to welcome 100 million international visitors to the United States annually by 2030, which he suggests would make the United States the most visited country in the world.
Welcoming 100 million international visitors in a year, however, would not quite make the United States the most-visited country worldwide. France is currently the most-visited country globally, having welcomed a record 102 million international visitors in 2025. France is expected to maintain or exceed that number this year. Spain is currently in second place, having welcomed 96.8 million international visitors last year.
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