Business

Foreign Visits to US Fell 6% Despite 6.7% Global Tourism Growth
By Reuters | 14 Jan, 2026

Unsettling US policies appear to have caused some tourists to head for Europe and Japan instead.

The United States registered a 6% drop in foreign visitors in 2025 even as global tourism overrode concerns about saturation in some locations to generate a 6.7% rise in spending compared to the previous year, according to an industry group. 

More than 1.5 billion tourists spent $11.7 trillion on hotels, cruises and flights last year, according to the data from the World Travel and Tourism Council.

The tourism industry's contribution was equivalent to 10.3% of global gross domestic product, with tourism spending growing at twice the pace of global economic growth, WTTC said.

With many people, especially from younger generations, travelling more frequently, concerns including U.S. anti-immigration policies pushed tourists to European countries such as Spain and France, as well as Japan, said WTTC interim President and CEO Gloria Guevara.

Latin Americans including Colombians and Mexicans travelled less to the U.S., with Mexicans who still went to the U.S. making shorter trips, she said in an interview in Madrid. 

As foreign tourism in the U.S. dipped, the world's third most visited country saw foreign tourists spend 7% less as arrivals from Canada, Mexico and Europe fell, according to WTTC estimates.

However, spending by domestic tourists offset this. The U.S. is the world's largest travel and tourism economy.

The tourism industry continues to grow despite backlash by some locals in tourist hotspots, Guevara said.

"We have not seen the impact of overtourism, and the best example is precisely where overtourism has been generated, particularly in Europe and Japan, where we are seeing another record," she said.

The global tourism industry is expected to grow 4.5% in 2026, again outpacing global economic growth, according to the WTTC.

France received 105 million visitors in 2025, while more than 96.5 million tourists arrived in Spain, according to WTTC estimates, well above the 68 million who visited the U.S. last year.

(Reporting by Corina Pons; editing by Charlie Devereux and Aidan Lewis)