'Trump slump' could hurt US tourism industry as interest in travel 'falls off a cliff'

Travel experts are calling it the “Trump Slump” — a drop-off in interest in travel to the US that is not only affecting countries targeted by the President since his election.

Travel website Kayak said interest in the USA had “fallen off a cliff” since Mr Trump’s inauguration and sweeping travel ban on people from seven Muslim-majority nations.

Searches for US destinations have fallen dramatically and hotel prices in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and New York City have dropped more than anywhere else globally.

A drop in travel to the US would hit the country hard in the hip pocket — in New York City alone, the travel industry is worth $US60 billion ($AU78 billion) annually.

UK-based Kayak found searches for flights to some of the most popular destinations in Florida had dropped since last year — by 58 per cent to Tampa, 58 per cent to Orlando, 57 per cent to Fort Lauderdale and 52 per cent to Miami.

And the news was no better on the other side of the country, where searches for San Diego were down 43 per cent, searches for Las Vegas down 36 per cent and searches for Los Angeles down 32 per cent.

Although flight prices have so far remained steady, hotel prices also dropped, with average prices down in Las Vegas by 39 per cent, in San Francisco by 34 per cent, and in New York by 32 per cent.

“We noted that searches to the USA dropped after the new president came to office, but it seems like this is a longer-term trend,” Kayak’s Suzanne Perry said.

Tourism big business for the United States

But it is not just UK-based travellers whose interest in the USA appears to have waned.

Data released by travel app Hopper in early February looked at international flight search demand prior to and in the wake of Mr Trump’s inauguration.

Their numbers showed flight demand to the US had fallen 17 per cent since the January 20 inauguration, dropping in 94 of the 122 countries included in the analysis.

Tourism is big business in the US, accounting for about 8 per cent of the GDP and 9.3 per cent of total employment, according to the World Travel and Tourism Council.

Mr Trump’s executive order, which halted travel from citizens of seven Muslim-majority nations — Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen — also appears to have affected travel.

As well as triggering nationwide protests and legal challenges, bookings in late January and early February from the countries affected were down 80 per cent on the same period last year, according to travel analytics company Forward Keys.

Worldwide demand also fell to its lowest point the Saturday after the executive order was announced.

Although there has been a slight recovery since then, Hopper said demand was still down 10 per cent on the final weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency.

But it is worth noting that, in stark contrast, Hopper’s data saw a dramatic rise in demand from Russia — up 88 per cent.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.