Traveling Tourists' Interest In The United States Drops Drastically, Turns Out This Is The Cause

Illustration of tourist interest in the United States has dropped dramatically (Freepic)

JAKARTA - Interest in traveling to the United States seems to decline sharply among Asian tourists this year. If most tourists from Canada step down due to tariff issues, border policies, and unfavorable exchange rates, then travelers from Asia have different concerns.

According to a survey conducted by CNBC Travel, nearly 80% of Southeast Asian tourists consider the United States to be increasingly uninteresting as a tourist destination.

One of the four respondents expressed their interest in visiting the US has decreased in the last six months. The main reasons mentioned are not cost, but concerns over discrimination, Trump's government policies, and gun violence.

This survey involved 6,000 respondents from Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, and Malaysia, and was conducted by the market research institute Milieu Insight from May 22 to June 10, 2025. The results show that young tourists are more affected by issues such as tariffs and border policies than older tourists. Even so, young people still show a higher interest overall for visits to the US.

Interestingly, despite the many concerns, tourists from Vietnam (57%) and the Philippines (49%) actually showed an increased interest in visiting the US compared to the previous six months. This is most likely related to the large number of their diaspora in the United States. Data from the Pew Research Center in 2024 shows Filipinos are the fourth largest immigrant group in the US, while Vietnamese are in eighth position.

"This could be due to family factors living there. But also because of the attractiveness of US culture, such as TV series, which remains strong," said Zilmiyah Kamble, senior lecturer in hospitality and tourism management at James Cook University, Singapore, as reported by the CNBC Make It page.

Even so, not all countries showed the same enthusiasm. Respondents from Singapore showed the most drastic decline in interest, with 55% saying they are now less interested in visiting the US than last November. Only 7% expressed their interest in increasing.

The survey also found that Vietnamese respondents responded most negatively to the trade rates imposed by the Trump administration. In April 2025, Trump announced a rate of 46% over imported goods from Vietnam. However, after the trade agreement on July 2, tariffs were lowered to 20% for goods from Vietnam and 40% for goods sent from other countries to Vietnam before being exported to the US.

The results of this CNBC survey are in line with a report from YouGov released in March 2025. The report shows that since January 2025, the global image of the US as a tourist destination has decreased sharply. Negative perceptions have increased in areas such as Europe, the Middle East/North Africa, Canada, and Mexico.

However, YouGov also noted that although bad perceptions increased, the number of people considering the US for their next international trip was relatively stable. After Trump was re-elected in November 2024, interest in visiting the US actually increased in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, India, Hong Kong, and Poland.

In contrast, interest decreased in Singapore, Canada, as well as Northern and Western Europe. Overall, global interest in traveling to the US fell 13%.

Public perception of travel to the US is also clearly visible on social media. Based on data from the analytic company Sprout Social, between April 30 and June 3, there were more than 87 thousand uploads and more than 1 million interactions (likes, comments, or sharing) on platforms such as X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, Tumblr, and Reddit discussing travel topics to the US.

Nearly 50 thousand uploads came from Canada, and about 45% of them were negative. Meanwhile, of the 18 thousand uploads originating from India, 96% of them are positive or neutral.

Surprisingly, the most negative sentiment regarding traveling to the US comes from users in the United States itself.