What Is Trump’s Effect on Travel?

“Is there a Trump-effect on travel?” It was the first question asked at the annual ALIS conference in Downtown Los Angeles by Kathleen Matthews, an award-winning journalist and former hotel executive who hosted the opening panel: Travel & Tourism: Dealing with the New Normal. The panel included global perspectives with Susie Grynol, president of the Hotel Association of Canada, Gerald Lawless, Chairman of WTTC, and Katherine Lugar, president and CEO of AHLA. The hotel market has seen a successful 2017, but changes in immigration policy and the new tax plan from the Trump administration could mean an impact on the hotel industry.

“Certainly, we think that there is a greater opportunity for this administration to issue a message that we are open for business, and that hospitality and tight security are synonymous,” said Lugar on the panel. “That is where I think there is a real opportunity to do a better job. She added that internationally only two countries are seeing decreases in travel, the US and Turkey. Additionally, of the top 15 inbound travel destinations to the US, 12 are experiencing decreases in tourism. Among them is New York City, which is down 21%. “That says a lot,” added Lugar. “This means not just fewer people staying in our hotels or eating in our restaurants. It means fewer people shopping in our retail stores, and fewer people visiting our nationally attractions. Most importantly, it means fewer people coming to our country coming to America. This decrease means, effectively, that there are $32 billion in lost revenue last year and 100,000 lost jobs.”

The US’s loss, however, may be Canada’s gain. Grynol says that the country has seen steady increases in travel over the last year and is now outpacing the US by 2%. The country is also seeing record RevPAR growth and 66% occupancy with growth projections for the year. However, she doesn’t attribute the total gain to lost travel to the US. “I think there is a range of reasons. Certainly, our prime minister has done of good job of giving an open and welcoming message, but it is bigger than that. People are discovering Canada for the first time. When you look at the global travel, they want an authentic experience and they want something that is new and different. There is so much to offer in Canada.” Canada is capitalizing off of the boost by investing in infrastructure and marketing to help drive even more tourism growth.