By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON, Sept 2 (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump met with major travel company executives on Wednesday including representatives from American Airlines, Marriott, MGM Resorts and Carnival to discuss ways to reverse a decline in international visitors.
U.S. tourism got a big but temporary boost from the FIFA World Cup this summer. Travel spending rose 6.2% year over year in June to $122.1 billion, its strongest monthly reading in a year and FIFA reported its best-ever attendance at this summer’s tournament.
Trump said FIFA was a big economic boost to U.S. host cities. “The American skies were loaded up with planes and loaded up with a lot of happy people,” Trump said.
U.S. Travel Association President Geoff Freeman said the group wants to boost foreign visitors to 100 million annually. This would be a sharp increase from 68 million in 2025, which was down 5.5% from 2024.
Even with the bump from the World Cup in June, overseas visitors are down another 4.7% through July 2026, the Commerce Department said.
“Let’s make the U.S. the world’s most visited destination. That’s France today,” Freeman said.
France had a record 102 million foreign tourists in 2025, including 5 million Americans, which was up 17% over 2025
International arrivals to the U.S. have declined, with travel officials citing a number of factors including lengthy visa interview wait times; higher airline ticket prices; stricter immigration policies; tariffs; and U.S. travel restrictions for some countries.
One concern of industry groups is the Trump administration’s imposition of bonds for visitors from 50 countries, which has resulted in an 80% decline in arrivals from those countries, Freeman said.
“We cannot get to 100 million travelers with a bond program that would discourage travelers,” Freeman told reporters.
Visitors from Canada fell 20% last year as Canadians objected to Trump’s tariffs and his calls for annexing their country. This hit U.S. tourism destinations like Las Vegas and border states. The number of Las Vegas tourists fell by 7.5% in 2025.
Trump’s meeting included the CEOs of Caesars Entertainment, Hard Rock International, IHG Hotels & Resorts, Venetian and Raffles & Fairmont.
The White House noted it has made airport screening easier, allowing passengers to keep shoes on and adding family screening lanes at some airports. It also aims to create more biometric fast lanes for returning U.S. citizens and quicker international connections to domestic flights.
The industry faced a number of hurdles over the last year as partial government shutdowns snarled airport security lines and flights.
Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin in May threatened to halt border processing at Newark and potentially other airports in so-called “sanctuary cities.”
Travel groups warned that this could lead to chaos, strand thousands of tourists and Americans trying to get home, and prevent crucial cargo shipments. Freeman said it appeared DHS has moved away from the idea.
(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Mark Porter, Nick Zieminski and David Gregorio)
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