In the competitive global travel industry, America has lost its edge with the world's highest-spending travelers due to long visa wait times, gun violence and geopolitics. But here's the silver lining in the clouds.
wo weeks ago, China announced it is lifting restrictions on group travel to the United States and several other countries, a move that U.S. Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo hailed as “a significant win for the U.S. travel and tourism industry.” Then she cut to the heart of the matter: U.S. tourism officials are pining for the return of Chinese tourists, by far the biggest spenders among global travelers.
To be clear, the U.S. has seen a drop in visitors from many countries, but not in equal measures. Just over half of inbound tourism to the U.S. comes from Canada and Mexico, whose visitation is down 19% and 8%, respectively, compared to 2019. Travel volume from the United Kingdom, the No. 3 pre-pandemic visitor source, is down 11%. Much more problematic are the sluggish numbers from what were the fourth- and fifth-biggest tourism sources in 2019.
In that context of global competition, tourism officials acknowledge that the U.S. recovery–in terms of visitation and spending–has been slower than expected. “This while at the same time Canada is at 102% of their recovery,” Freeman says. “Clearly travelers are making a decision and too many are deciding not to come to the United States.”for 13 different countries for whom the U.S. still has requirements.
“The visa wait times have been a big concern,” says Funke at San Francisco’s tourism organization. “Keep in mind that in China, this is not just a visa issue. A lot of Chinese passports have lapsed and expired during the pandemic and we know from sources on the ground that the Chinese government has not kept up with the demand in issuing new passports to its citizens. So it’s a double whammy there.
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