冖_冖
Registered Member
‘Mind-boggling’: The U.S. is the only major country losing visitors, says travel chief — as China’s foreign entries jump 20%
Laura BoastOct 3, 2026
You’d think 2026 would be the high point for international travel to the U.S. with the FIFA World Cup on home soil. After all, we’re well past the pandemic.
Sadly, the high point for foreign visitors was 2018, pre-COVID. That year, 79.7 million international visitors came to the U.S. — more than any year since 2000, according to data from the U.S. Trade Department’s National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO).
While global travel has increased since COVID, fewer travelers are visiting the U.S. Inbound travel to the U.S. has actually dropped in the past two years.
Meanwhile, China has seen a 20% increase in foreign visitors thanks to its expansion of visa-free entry. It all leaves Geoff Freeman, the president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association, frustrated.
“We’re the only major country in the world losing visitation,” he told Axios. “It’s mind-boggling.”
Right now, Freeman said, many international visitors are avoiding the U.S. out of fear they’ll be detained. News coverage hasn’t helped.
Last year, as PBS News reported, U.S. border agents arrested a German man on a tourist visa, shackled him and held him for 16 days in a detention center. A German woman visiting the U.S. was detained and spent six weeks in a detention center. Both returned to Germany.
Meanwhile, a French scientist was denied entry last year because officers observed negative texts about Trump on his phone, per The Guardian.
