Figure 1 \u2013 Year-over-Year Change in International Arrivals to the U.S.,\u00a0
by Month, 2024 vs. 2025 (in thousands)<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/files\/reports\/vector_image\/figure-1-federal-impact-on-tourism.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Of the types of travelers visiting the U.S., the largest share are tourists; 84.2 percent of visas were tourism visas in 2024. In 2025, the number of tourism visas declined by over 537,100 (1.6 percent) from 2024.2<\/a> Student visas, which comprised 4.5 percent of travelers in 2024, dropped by 13.5 percent, down by 197,355. Business visas decreased by almost 56,500 (1.2 percent). (See Figure 2.)\u00a0<\/p>\n The change in student visas reflects a range of presidential Executive actions that have affected international student enrollment in New York and across the country, as described in this analysis<\/a> from the Office of the State Comptroller. These actions include temporarily pausing new interviews of applicants, partially restricting entry from some nations, and revoking student visas.<\/p>\n Figure 2 \u2013 Year-over-Year Change in International Arrivals to the U.S.,\u00a0 In addition to the data from the I-94 arrivals program, which largely focuses on visitors who travel to the U.S. by either air or by sea, U.S. Customs and Border Protection provides statistics on the number of travelers presenting themselves at the various ports of entry to the country, including those arriving by land through passenger vehicles or pedestrian traffic. According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in 2025, 37.1 million and 181.7 million travelers came from Canada and Mexico, respectively.3<\/a> This was 15.5 million lower than in 2024, largely due to a 10.3 million (21.7 percent) decline in those from Canada; from Mexico, the decrease was 4.2 million (2.2 percent).<\/p>\n New York Has Second Highest Decline in Overseas Travelers<\/p>\n At the end of 2024, with over 5.8 million arrivals from overseas, New York ranked second highest among the states in overseas travelers; Florida had the most, 7.2 million.4<\/a> In 2025, there were nearly 176,650 (3.0 percent) fewer visitations from overseas; only California had a higher decrease, over 275,000.5<\/a> The national decrease was 2.5 percent.<\/p>\n Figure 3 \u2013 Monthly Number of Travelers from Canada to New York, 2024 and 2025<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Because the state shares a border with Canada, a significant number of visitors come to New York via passenger vehicle, or even on foot, and there has been a significant decrease in these trips to New York. In 2025, there were nearly 3.6 million fewer travelers crossing from Canada, a decline of 21.2 percent.6<\/a> As shown in Figure 3, the only month where the number was higher was in January.\u00a0<\/p>\n With the decline in international visitors, attendance at many of the state\u2019s national sites was down in 2025. According to the National Park Service, visitation to sites in New York dropped by 18.2 percent from 2024; most notably, there were nearly 183,800 (4.9 percent) fewer visitors to the Statue of Liberty through October 2025 (See Figure 4).7<\/a> \u2003<\/p>\n Figure 4 \u2013 Attendance at Top 10 National Sites in New York, 2024 and 2025 (in thousands)\u00a0National Park Service Site20252024ChangeGateway National Recreation Area7,696.98,929.0(1,232.1)Castle Clinton National Monument3,656.43,822.8(166.4)Statue of Liberty National Monument3,538.23,722.0(183.8)Upper Delaware Scenic & Recreational River380.2377.13.2\u00a0Fire Island National Seashore305.5303.71.8\u00a0Stonewall National Monument298.12,302.6(2,004.6)Vanderbilt Mansion National Historic Site295.0406.1(111.0)Sagamore Hill National Historical Site122.1130.3(8.1)Saratoga National Historical Park119.3116.52.7\u00a0Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historical Site101.9123.8(21.9)Total All Sites16,959.620,731.0(3,771.4)<\/p>\n Attendance at state parks also declined in 2025, by over 2.3 million (2.6 percent). With the decrease in Canadian border crossings, the Niagara Reservation, which includes Niagara Falls, had over 610,000 (6.4 percent) fewer visitors in 2025 (See Figure 5); for all state parks in Western New York, there was a net decline of 2.9 percent.8<\/a> In the North Country, state park attendance decreased by a net of 19,060 (0.9 percent).9<\/a><\/p>\n Figure 5 \u2013 Attendance at Top 10 New York State Parks, 2024 and 2025 (in thousands)\u00a0State ParkCounty20252024ChangeNiagara ReservationNiagara8,905.99,516.0(610.1)Jones BeachNassau7,913.49,534.7(1,621.3)Gantry PlazaQueens4,231.53,005.21,226.3\u00a0Saratoga Springs\u00a0Saratoga3,723.63,934.0(210.4)Robert Moses\u00a0Suffolk3,635.23,937.8(302.7)Sunken Meadow\u00a0Suffolk3,551.33,529.022.3\u00a0Riverbank\u00a0New York3,210.63,817.2(606.6)Bear Mountain\u00a0Orange\/Rockland2,091.42,766.7(675.3)Green Lakes\u00a0Onondaga1,961.11,477.9483.2\u00a0All State Parks\u00a086,032.688,378.7(2,346.1)Fewer Travelers, Lower U.S. Spending<\/p>\n Spending by travelers from other countries in the U.S. includes the purchase of a variety of goods and services, primarily lodging, meals, transportation in the country of travel (excluding travel between countries, specifically air passenger services), amusement, entertainment, and gifts.10<\/a> In 2025, real spending by international visitors totaled $174.4 billion, 0.7 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).11<\/a><\/p>\n Figure 6 \u2013 Spending by International Travelers in the U.S., 2019 \u2013 2025<\/p>\n Over half of the expenditures by travelers to the U.S. were for personal\/tourism purposes in 2024. When combined with business travel, the share increases to 64.0 percent. Through the third quarter of 2025 (the latest data available), both had decreased.12<\/a><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Figure 7 \u2013 Real Spending on Travel to the U.S. through the Third Quarter,\u00a0 Personal consumption expenditures by international travelers in New York totaled nearly $17 billion in 2024, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.13<\/a> Through the third quarter of 2025, real GDP in New York for industries associated with tourism exhibited no growth from the final quarter of 2024 (on a seasonally adjusted annual basis).14<\/a><\/p>\n In 2025, hotel occupancy decreased by 1.2 percent from 2024. For New York City, the year-over-year change in occupancy was relatively flat, a decrease of 0.2 percent.15<\/a> In addition, 2.9 million fewer people are projected to visit the city in 2025, with spending expected to decrease by $6 billion.16<\/a><\/p>\n Results have been similar in other areas of the state. In Buffalo, occupancy rates have been relatively the same in 2025 as in 2024. However, this is due to the lower availability of hotel rooms; occupancy has decreased by nearly 1 percent.17<\/a> In the Capital Region, hotel occupancy rates were down in Albany, Warren, and Schenectady counties and flat in Saratoga County in the first half of the year.18<\/a><\/p>\n In 2024, there were over 932,400 private sector jobs in New York in industries associated with international travel which paid over $45.4 billion in wages; nearly three-quarters of the employment (74.2 percent) was in accommodation and food services.19<\/a><\/p>\n Through September 2025, average employment in these industries increased by 1,782 jobs, 0.2 percent, over the same period in 2024; in comparison, private sector job growth in all other industries in the state was 1.0 percent.20<\/a> However, in accommodation and food services, there were 798 fewer jobs, a decline of 0.1 percent.<\/p>\n Employment growth in travel-related industries was stronger in New York City during this time, with average employment increasing by 1 percent. However, in those regions of the state near the Canadian border, travel-related employment declined through September (see Figure 8). While the North Country had the highest rate of decline, 1.9 percent, Western New York lost the largest number of jobs, 656.21<\/a><\/p>\n For the accommodation and food services subsector, employment growth was only slightly slower than for the overall industry in New York City. In the other two regions, the decline in jobs was more pronounced. This was particularly true in Western New York, where the drop in accommodation and food services employment was a full percentage point higher.22<\/a><\/p>\n Figure 8 \u2013 Year-over-Year Change in Employment, Total Travel-Related Industries and Accommodation\u00a0 Conclusion<\/p>\n Policies enacted at the federal level, including increased tariffs and immigration restrictions, have adversely impacted the number of international visitors and the billions of dollars they spend. This spending supports millions of jobs across the country as well as hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state. According to the latest data available, the lower number of travelers and associated spending has had an adverse impact on industry employment, particularly in accommodations and food services. Increases in inflation may also cause these travelers to continue to eschew travel to the U.S., taking their money with them.<\/p>\n Endnotes<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Federal Funding and New York – Page Style Residents of other countries travel to the United States for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9871,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":{"0":"post-184201","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-headlines","10":"tag-new-york-news","11":"tag-new-york-state","12":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","13":"tag-new-york-state-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
by Visa Type, 2025 (in thousands)<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/files\/reports\/vector_image\/figure-2-federal-impact-on-tourism-graph.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/files\/reports\/vector_image\/federal-impact-on-tourism-yoy-decline-in-visitors-from-canada.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/files\/reports\/vector_image\/federal-impact-on-tourism-figure-3.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/files\/reports\/vector_image\/federal-impact-on-tourism-figure-6.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
by Type of Travel, 2024 and 2025 (dollars in billions)\u00a0Travel TypeYTD Third Quarter 2024YTD Third Quarter 2025\u00a0Total SpendingChange from Prior YearTotal SpendingChange from Prior Year\u00a0AmountPercent\u00a0AmountPercentPersonal Travel$92.3$12.315.3%$89.0($3.3)-3.6%Medical\/Education$48.6$4.29.5%$50.0$1.4\u00a02.9%Business Travel\u00a0$21.2$2.714.6%$20.9($0.3)-1.4%Seasonal\/Short-Term Worker$13.5$0.32.5%$13.8$0.3\u00a02.2%New York Economic Impacts<\/p>\n
and Food Services, Select Regions, January to September, 2024 and 2025<\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/files\/reports\/vector_image\/figure-8-federal-impact-on-tourism-graph.svg\"\/)
<\/p>\n