WASHINGTON — U.S. travel industry leaders are urging the Trump administration to help reverse declining international visitation and pursue a goal of welcoming 100 million international visitors by 2030.
According to CNBC, President Donald Trump met Wednesday with executives from major airlines, hotel companies and travel brands, along with representatives from the U.S. Travel Association, as the industry pressed the White House to make inbound travel easier and more competitive.
Among those represented at the meeting were American Airlines, Booking Holdings, Caesars Entertainment, Carnival, Hard Rock International, Hilton, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, MGM Resorts International, Raffles & Fairmont and the Venetian.
U.S. Travel Association President and CEO Geoff Freeman told Trump the industry wants to reclaim the title of the world’s most visited destination from France.
“We’d like to work with you as an industry to go win that title back, to make the U.S. the world’s most visited destination,” Freeman said.
INTERNATIONAL VISITATION REMAINS WEAK
U.S. Travel currently expects international visitation to be “flat to up a little bit” in 2026, after falling to 68 million visitors in 2025 from 72 million in 2024.
“Arresting that decline … is the first step,” Freeman said.
Overseas arrivals fell 7% year over year in July and were down 4.7% for the year to date. International visitation overall fell 5.5% in 2025, with travel officials pointing to long visa interview waits, tighter immigration policies and concerns among some foreign travellers about entering the U.S.
Higher costs are also weighing on demand, with travel prices up 8.1% year over year in June.
CANADIAN TRAVEL ALSO DOWN
The decline is particularly evident in Canada.
As reported by Travelweek earlier this week, according to Statistics Canada’s National Travel Survey and Visitor Travel Survey, Canadian residents took 5.5 million trips that included a U.S. visit in the first quarter of 2026, down 10.6% year over year.
Spending by Canadians in the U.S. fell 13.6% to $5 billion. Overall outbound travel from Canada declined a more modest 3.3%, underscoring the sharper pullback in U.S.-bound travel.
ENTRY BARRIERS IN FOCUS
The U.S. Travel Association has been urging Washington to reduce barriers for international visitors and has opposed a new US$250 Visa Integrity Fee and expanded social-media screening requirements for some foreign visitors. Trump also more than tripled the cost for international travellers to visit U.S. national parks.
Trump said his administration had cut visa wait times by 40% ahead of the FIFA World Cup and pointed to efforts to improve international connections and modernize the country’s air traffic control system.
