(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 locations try to attract guests.
Where is tourism declining?
A
Las Vegas tourism report
Released earlier this week indicated that both visitation and hotel occupancy rates decreased compared to the previous 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 moved into February,” said American Airlines CEO Robert Isom to CNBC.
Customer hesitance to reserve trips would align with
a new poll
That indicated numerous individuals dread 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 domestic and international visitors.
U.S. Travel Association
Reports indicated that international visits decreased by 14% in March compared to the previous year. The organization noted 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 increasing hostility toward Americans.
Over the past few weeks, many articles have highlighted how tourists are cancelling their visits to the U.S. as a response to what they see as overly strict new trade measures,” he stated in his client communication. “This suggests we should take into account yet another factor when evaluating the impact of these duties on overall economic actions.
A modest reduction in international travel, stemming from either boycotts or financial instability, could result in significant losses for the US economy amounting to several billion dollars.
Bloomberg
reports.
Is the decrease in tourism likely to lead to better travel offers?
Should demand decline within the travel industry, airlines, hotel chains, and similar businesses might reduce their prices to entice customers back.
The cost of air travel decreased in both February and March, as reported.
Labor Department monitoring
.
Alaska Airlines Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett informed CNBC, “The ticket prices have weakened compared to those in the final three months of last year extending through early February.” He further noted, “While demand remains robust across our sector, it hasn’t reached the elevated levels we expected would persist from last year onwards.”
Before jumping to 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 declines 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.
“Indeed, during the 2008 downturn, we experienced 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 quite noticeable in items considered luxuries for many families, such as traveling. For example, airfare typically sees decreases in pricing leading up to most economic slumps. If another recession were to occur, I believe we’d witness similar trends once more.”
Nexstar’s Addy Bink and the Associated Press provided contributions for this report.
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