{"id":59418,"date":"2025-08-05T05:27:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59418\/"},"modified":"2025-08-05T05:27:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-05T05:27:11","slug":"trump-tariffs-tiffs-tied-to-nyc-tourism-drop-are-catastrophically-affecting-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/59418\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump tariffs, tiffs tied to NYC tourism drop are \u2018catastrophically\u2019 affecting business"},"content":{"rendered":"

To understand how President Donald Trump\u2019s endless talk about tariffs<\/a>, annexation<\/a> threats and deportation newsreels<\/a> bear down on New York City\u2019s tourism businesses, look no further than Ridgewood, Queens-based Spread Love Tours.<\/p>\n

Matt Levy\u2019s one-man tour-guide company usually takes in about $35,000 annually from visiting Canadian high school groups. But Levy said declining tourism from Canada, which the president has mulled annexing, has \u201ccatastrophically\u201d affected his business.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been unprecedentedly horrifying,\u201d said Levy, who expects revenues to drop to $5,000 this year and to disappear entirely in 2026.<\/p>\n

He won\u2019t bear the pain alone.<\/p>\n

Broad swaths of the city\u2019s tourism industry are reeling from a drop in tourism spending. New York City Tourism and Conventions, the city\u2019s primary tourism booster, recently downgraded its expectations for tourism spending, predicting a loss of $4 billion this year, driven largely by a decline in arrivals from Canada, France, Germany and Mexico.<\/p>\n

The travel organization projects the city will attract 52 million domestic visitors this year, down from an earlier estimate of 53.1 million visitors, and 12.1 million international visitors, down from an earlier estimate of 14.1 million. The drop in foreign visitors is particularly worrisome to industry watchers because international travelers on average spend substantially<\/a> more than domestic visitors.<\/p>\n

Some experts fear the spending declines will mount with Trump\u2019s tariffs regime still unsettled. A ramped-up federal deportation program, recently infused with some $170 billion in new funds, could compel even more foreign travelers to stay away. The World Travel and Tourism Council said<\/a> the tourism drop \u201crepresents a direct blow to the U.S. economy overall, impacting communities, jobs and businesses from coast to coast.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not good,\u201d said Claudia Green, \u200aa professor of international hospitality and tourism management at Pace University. \u201c\u200aThe anti-U.S. sentiment<\/a> and the fear of making it over the border [without hassle] is keeping a lot of people away.\u201d<\/p>\n

Signs of stress may run under the radar. Unemployment in the city stood at a seasonally adjusted 4.7% in June, down slightly from the month before, and 0.6% less than in June 2024. But those numbers belie other weaknesses in the city\u2019s economy, including declining labor force participation rates, especially among men of color, according to new data reported Thursday by the New School.<\/a><\/p>\n

More economic headwinds could be ahead. Trump on Thursday imposed a 35% tariff<\/a> on Canadian goods, citing the Canadian government\u2019s alleged failure to prevent fentanyl smuggling over the U.S.-Canada border. The White House had no immediate comment about the city’s tourism decline.<\/p>\n

A top destination<\/p>\n

New York City is the top destination<\/a> for travelers to the United States, and the health of the city’s and country\u2019s tourism industries are tightly linked. According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the United States is the only country among 184 economies<\/a> where international visitor spending is expected to drop this year, a $12.5 billion decline.<\/p>\n

Richie Karaburun, a clinical associate professor of hospitality and tourism at the NYU School of Professional Studies, said multiple forces had created a \u201cperfect storm\u201d for the city\u2019s tourism industry. They include the political environment, inflation, tariffs and rising temperatures, as well as a new $250 visa integrity fee<\/a> required of travelers from India, Brazil and other countries, he said.<\/p>\n

Segments of domestic tourism have also been affected, Karaburun added, pointing to mass layoffs within the federal government and cuts to higher education. He said both would result in less business travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine the trickle effect,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It isn\u2019t only global politics and tariffs keeping more Canadians in Canada, which is typically the top source<\/a> of international visitors to the United States. Trump\u2019s oft-repeated threat<\/a> to make Canada \u201cthe 51st state\u201d has also left a mark.<\/p>\n

The BBC has reported on Canadians and others recoiling over viral accounts of foreign visitors receiving rough treatment at U.S. border<\/a> crossings. The alarm prompted Canada and several European countries to issue<\/a> travel advisories for the United States.<\/p>\n

But even a partially debunked<\/a> viral video of a foreign visitor\u2019s rough encounter with law enforcement in New York City can fuel ocean-spanning discussion in social media forums about staying away from the city, at least until things blow over.<\/p>\n

All told, New York City Tourism and Conventions estimates that visitation from Canada to New York City will drop 20% this year over 2024, as well as 8% from France, 10% from Germany and 8.5% from Mexico.<\/p>\n

‘With Love + Liberty …’<\/p>\n

Julie Coker, the organization\u2019s president and CEO, made no mention of tariffs or other policies in a statement accompanying the latest forecast, but cited the ongoing rollout of \u201cWith Love + Liberty, New York City,\u201d an international marketing campaign<\/a> featuring the Statue of Liberty, \u201ca symbol of our enduring welcoming spirit and hospitality.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOur welcoming spirit will not waver,\u201d Coker said in her statement, \u201cand global travelers have an open invitation to visit the one and only New York City when they\u2019re ready.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vijay Dandapani, president and CEO of the Hotel Association of New York City, said that in addition to Canadian and European tourists, visitors from Brazil and India were increasingly being affected by \u201ca slew of bureaucratic measures instituted by the Department of State.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also argued the Trump administration’s travel ban for nationals of 12 countries, many of them Muslim, \u201csent the wrong message\u201d for people from other Muslim countries.<\/p>\n

Dandapani said some segments of the city\u2019s hotel industry would feel the overall tourism decline more than others. The city\u2019s \u201cmid- and lower-scale market\u201d was more directly impacted by the prevailing issues, he said, while luxury hotels were doing \u201crelatively better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe reason for that is that tourists from that sector continue to spend their disposable income as their capital accounts have done well in the financial markets,\u201d Dandapani said, adding that city officials could help by lowering<\/a> the occupancy tax.<\/p>\n

Not all tourist attractions are struggling. The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced last month<\/a> that its overall attendance had grown by 5% over the previous fiscal year, driven by strong numbers from the tristate area, which accounted for 62% of all visitors.<\/p>\n

Similarly, attendance at the Tenement Museum was up 6%, in large part due to K-12 group tours, according to Rachael Grygorcewicz, the museum\u2019s chief operating officer.<\/p>\n

But Grygorcewicz said attendance from key Western countries \u2014 including Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, France and Germany \u2014 had declined 20% over the past six months. International visitors account for 12% of the museum\u2019s attendance, Grygorcewicz said.<\/p>\n

‘It’s a shame’<\/p>\n

Levy, the tour guide, said the loss of tourists from Canada meant he was less likely to contract with freelance tour guides and increasingly conduct the tours himself.<\/p>\n

He said that includes giving private tours to wealthy tourists from Hong Kong and other places, who paid as much as $400 an hour to be chauffeured around the city in a Cadillac Escalade while taking in the landmarks along with Levy\u2019s insights.<\/p>\n

On the few occasions this spring that he did have Canadian student groups, Levy said he disparaged the president and apologized on behalf of the country, \u201c\u200aand the entire bus erupts in cheers and applause and shouting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levy expressed his frustration at the state of affairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a shame,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the tour guide with Spread Love Tours. He is Matt Levy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To understand how President Donald Trump\u2019s endless talk about tariffs, annexation threats and deportation newsreels bear down on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":59419,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-59418","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59418","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59418"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59418\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59418"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59418"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59418"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}