TRUMP'S ASSAULT ON TOURISM

THE VIEW FROM BAD BUNNY COUNTRY

By Elizabeth Becker

Puerto Natales, CHILE – Sometimes you have to leave your country to see it clearly.

That happened to me here in Patagonia, at the end of the earth. I was part of an international crowd (700 people from 60 countries) who had traveled slowly through some of this country’s wild landscape to attend the world summit of the Adventure Travel and Tourism Association. The mood was upbeat. We intended to chart a better future for tourism in panels and break-out sessions.

Then I spoke. My theme was the state of tourism today, the requisite good, bad and ugly. Overall, global tourism industry is in fine shape, a juggernaut that contributes $10.9 trillion to the global GDP and is the world’s biggest employer. If anything, a common complaint is travel’s relentless popularity has led to “overtourism.”

But the thrust of my talk was the almost brutal reversal of fortunes for tourism in the United States. In a matter of months, the policies and politics of President Donald Trump have sabotaged the American tourism industry. It went from the world’s best market in 2024 with earnings of $2.6 trillion to the most disappointing this year, already on track to lose $ 29 billion.

President Trump, the man who made his name in hospitality – with Trump golf courses, Trump resorts, Trump hotels – has enacted radical policies that enraged, frightened and intimidated would-be tourists. His indifference to the damage he has caused has shocked the tourism world.

“While other nations are rolling out the welcome mat, the U.S. government is putting up the ‘closed’ sign,” said Julia Simpson, head of the stalwart World Travel and Tourism Council.

He has insulted neighbors, treated foreigners as enemies, militarized borders, bloated the price of visas (a tourist visa to the US now costs at least $400 and as much as $15,000. He sends heavily armed and masked border agents around the US to abduct hundreds of thousands immigrants and enacted tariffs that are upending economies around the world.

Expecting pushback, I filled my talk with facts, statistics and case studies.

The audience didn’t need convincing. They understood the havoc created by Trump better than I did. They are living it, rewriting business plans, laying off employees, losing entire sectors after the Trump destroyed the United States Agency for International Aid that funded tourism efforts around the globe. (His team ridiculed a tourism project in Egypt.)

They also know the depth of the damage. The US reputation is being shredded week by week and reputation is everything in tourism. From Europe, South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, these tourism experts have watched Trump’s authoritarian behavior. Can they promise their clients that the U.S. is a safe and tolerant democracy?

Arthur Frommer, the father of modern tourism, warned of this: “I find in my own travels that the most depressing form of culture shock is experienced when you go into a country that is under the thumb of a dictator.”

That quote resonates with me. As a former war correspondent, I’ve reported from countries spiraling into chaos, seen democracies disabled by leaders using propaganda and force to gain full powers and seen citizens deprived of their basic rights.

I asked the audience if they knew anyone who no longer will travel to the U.S. because they fear being arbitrarily rejected at the airport even when they held valid passports and visas.

Hands shot up.

Denise Cullen, an Australian travel writer, told me “I’ve been all over the world and I’ve never been as nervous as I was going through border control at a U.S. airport.”

Her editor at The Australian warned against travel to the US: “America is suddenly on the nose as a holiday destination.” That’s Australian for ‘America stinks.’

(on Chile’s Pacific Coast)

Trump ignited the upheaval in early February when he falsely accused Canada – America’s oldest friend – of invading the US with illegal drugs while taking outside economic advantage of the US for decades. Canada, he said, should lose its sovereignty and become the 51^st state of the U.S.

The threat struck like a thunderbolt. Canadians fought back through tourism and launched a boycott of the U.S. that has reduced travel across the border by a third and promises to be permanent from the sun states of Arizona and Florida to the border towns from Maine to Washington state.

Trump doesn’t seem to care. He recently dismissed the boycott, saying “the people of Canada, they will love us again. Most of them still do.”

This doesn’t add up. Trump says his major goal is to reduce the US trade deficit. Tourism has done that as the largest U.S. service export. Yet he is treating tourism as collateral damage to his larger goal of amassing power.

My question to the audience was whether and how they would stand up to Trump in the name of their livelihood and their values.

The one consistent bright spot in America’s image here was our rapper Bad Bunny. The Puerto Rican super star was named entertainer for the Super Bowl half time show. After seeing those videos of immigrants abducted from the streets of American cities because they are brown skinned and speak Spanish, the National Football League’s decision was a tonic. Trump called the decision “absolutely ridiculous.”

This is Bad Bunny country. His songs are everywhere – on playlists, in cafes, and airports. Everyone plans to watch the Super Bowl, at least the half-time show. A welcome improvement in that precious commodity of tourism – America’s reputation.

(in Patagonia)