(Nexstar) — With growing concerns over economic instability and global tensions, many popular tourist destinations across the nation fear they might see fewer visitors this year. However, travel experts suggest that if demand significantly decreases, you might benefit from better deals as these areas try to attract tourists.
Where is tourism declining?
A
Las Vegas tourism report
Released earlier this week indicated that both visitor numbers 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.
Due to the decrease in travel demand, leading U.S. airlines are cutting back on their flight schedules and adjusting or canceling their financial forecasts for the year.
“We came off a strong fourth quarter, saw decent business in January, and really domestic leisure travel fell off considerably as we went into the February time frame,” American Airlines CEO Robert Isom told CNBC.
Customer hesitancy to reserve 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 local and international visitors.
U.S. Travel Association
Reports indicated that international visits decreased by 14% in March compared to the previous year. The largest declines came from travelers originating in Canada and Western Europe, according to the organization.
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, various media reports have highlighted how many travelers are cancelling their visits to the U.S., as they object to what they see as overly strict new trade measures,” he noted in his analysis for clients. “This suggests we should take into account yet another factor when evaluating the impact these taxes might be having on overall business.
A modest decrease in international travel, stemming from either boycotts or financial instability, could result in significant losses for the U.S. economy amounting to billions of dollars.
Bloomberg
reports.
Will the decrease in tourism lead to better travel offers?
Should demand decline within the travel industry, airlines, hotel chains, and similar businesses might reduce their prices in an effort to attract more customers again.
The cost of airfares decreased in both February and March, as reported.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics monitoring
.
The ticket prices haven’t been as robust as they were during the fourth quarter of last year and extending into January and early February,” said Alaska Airlines Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett to CNBC. “While demand remains elevated across the sector, it hasn’t reached the heights we expected would persist from last year.
Before jumping to too many conclusions, several industry analysts recommend holding off until the April data comes out to evaluate whether the typically bustling spring break and Easter travel periods exhibited 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 observe 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.
In reality, during the 2008 economic downturn, we observed deflation for several months when the general price level dropped,” explained Tyler Schipper, an associate professor of economics at the University of St. Thomas. “This phenomenon tends to be especially pronounced for items considered luxuries for many families, such as travel. For example, airfare typically sees reduced prices leading up to most recessions. If another recession were to occur, I believe we’d witness similar declines once more.
Nexstar’s Addy Bink and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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