(NEXSTAR) — With growing concerns over economic instability and global tensions, many major tourist destinations across the nation fear they might see fewer visitors this year. However, travel experts suggest that if demand significantly decreases, you could benefit from better deals emerging as a result.
Where is tourism declining?
A
Las Vegas tourism report
Released earlier this week indicated that both visitation and hotel occupancy rates decreased compared to last year. This data comes from California’s tourism board.
reported steep drop-offs
beginning in February and March.
As a result of dropping travel demand, major U.S. airlines are reducing their flight schedules and revising or withdrawing their profit outlooks for the year.
“We concluded with a robust fourth quarter, experienced reasonable activity in January, but noticed a significant decline in domestic leisure travel as we progressed into February,” said American Airlines CEO Robert Isom to CNBC.
Customer hesitancy about scheduling trips would align with
a new poll
That indicated numerous individuals are afraid the U.S. is under threat.
steered into a recession
Moreover, President Donald Trump’s extensive and inconsistently applied tariffs will lead to increased costs.
The decrease in travelers includes both locals and international visitors.
U.S. Travel Association
International visits decreased by 14% in March compared to the previous year. According to the report, the most significant declines came from travelers originating in Canada and Western Europe.
Michael Feroli, who leads the U.S. economics team at J.P. Morgan, suggested that the decline in travel might be attributed to an increase in negative feelings toward Americans.
Over the past few weeks, many articles have highlighted how tourists are cancelling their visits to the U.S. due to objections over what they see as overly strict new trade measures,” he stated in his memo for clients. “This suggests an additional avenue worth examining when gauging the impact of these duties on overall economic action.
A modest reduction in international travel, stemming from either boycotts or financial instability, could result in significant losses for the US economy amounting to billions of dollars.
Bloomberg
reports.
Is the decrease in tourism likely to lead to better travel deals?
Should demand decrease within the travel industry, airlines, hotel chains, and similar businesses might reduce their prices in an attempt to attract more customers.
The cost of air travel decreased in February and March, as reported.
Labor Department monitoring
.
The ticket prices have weakened compared to those in the final three months of last year, particularly during January and early February,” said Alaska Airlines Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett to CNBC. “While demand remains robust across the sector, it hasn’t reached the levels we expected would persist from last year.
Before jumping to conclusions, several industry analysts recommend holding off until the April data is published to evaluate whether the typically bustling spring break and Easter travel periods experienced similar decreases in prices.
Nonetheless, airline business writer
Brian Summers
stated to The New York Times, “Overall, I anticipate that prices will drop, and we’ll notice more unoccupied seats.”
Should the U.S. economy slide into a recession this year, it might lead to lower prices for travel as well as various other products and services.
Indeed, during the 2008 economic downturn, deflation occurred for several months with the general price level dropping,” explained Tyler Schipper, an associate professor of economics at the University of St. Thomas. “This phenomenon tends to be quite pronounced in items considered luxuries for many families, such as travel. For example, airfare typically sees price reductions leading up to most recessions. If another recession were to occur, I believe we’d observe similar trends.
Nexstar’s Addy Bink and the Associated Press provided contributions for this report.
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