(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 last year. This data comes from California’s tourism board.
reported steep drop-offs
beginning in February and March.
Due to the decline in travel demand, leading U.S. airlines are cutting back on their flight schedules and adjusting or canceling their financial projections 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 hesitation about scheduling 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 local 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 from 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 form of objection against what they see as overly strict new trade measures,” he stated in his memo for clients. “This suggests we should take into account yet another factor when evaluating the impact of these taxes on overall economic actions.
A modest decrease in international travel, stemming from either boycotts or financial instability, could result in significant losses totaling billions for the U.S. economy.
Bloomberg
reports.
Will the decrease in tourism lead to better travel offers?
Should demand decrease within the travel industry, airlines, hotel chains, and similar businesses might reduce their prices in an effort to attract more customers again.
Airfares decreased in February and March, as reported.
The Bureau of LaborStatistics monitoring
.
The ticket prices haven’t been as robust as they were during the fourth quarter of last year extending into January and early February,” said Alaska Airlines Chief Financial Officer Shane Tackett to CNBC. “While demand remains very strong 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 comes out to determine 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, resulting in more unoccupied seats.”
Should the U.S. economy slide into a recession this year, it might lead to lower costs for travel and various other products and services.
Indeed, during the 2008 economic downturn, there were several months when deflation occurred, causing the general price level to drop,” explained Tyler Schipper, an associate professor of economics at the University of St. Thomas. “This phenomenon tends to be quite pronounced for items considered somewhat luxurious for many families, such as traveling. For example, airfare typically sees decreases in pricing leading up to most recessions. If another recession hits, I expect we’ll observe similar trends.
Nexstar’s Addy Bink and the Associated Press provided contributions for this report.
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