Economy

New consequences of Trump’s policy: Americans are traveling less

Fluctuations on the stock exchanges after the introduction of new tariffs by the Trump administration caused a wave of vacation cancelations and a drop in demand in the US tourism industry. Reuters writes about this, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.

Americans are massively reconsidering their vacation plans due to economic instability that arose after the stock market plummeted in early April. The main reason for the financial fluctuations was the new trade tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump, which caused the largest percentage drop in major US stock indices since 2020.

With the fall in markets and stock exchanges, many Americans faced a decline in the value of their retirement accounts, and they became more cautious about spending on non-essentials, especially travel. Consumer sentiment in the US deteriorated to an almost three-year low in April. Even before that, spending on lodging and travel activities in March was down about 2.5% year-on-year, according to Bank of America.

Airlines, including Delta Air Lines and Frontier Group, have withdrawn their annual forecasts due to uncertainty about consumer behavior in the economic downturn.

Travel agents note that those clients who are still planning vacations prefer to forgo international travel and stay closer to home. Others are looking for opportunities to cancel their plans if the situation worsens.

“They are asking more about the cancellation policy and want to get refundable rates. I’ve also been selling more travel insurance policies lately,”

– says Jennifer DiDonna, owner of a travel agency in New Jersey.

According to InsureMyTrip, sales of policies with the “Cancel for Any Reason” option increased by 30% in March compared to the same period last year.

Kimberly Hilliard, co-founder of a travel agency in Maryland, reports an unusual lull in business. According to her, at this time of year, she usually receives up to 10 inquiries a week from clients looking to book a vacation, but over the past month, the phones have been silent. Even regular clients with whom she has worked for months are putting off finalizing their travel arrangements.

“What’s happening with the market and the economy right now is probably affecting their decision – [they’re] wondering whether they should take the risk and go ahead and travel or not,”

– explains Hilliard.

This situation is already affecting international tourism. Although the US remains the largest source of foreign visitors to Italy and France, in March, searches for flights to these countries from the US for the next six months decreased by about 12%. Searches for flights to the UK decreased by 23%.

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Trump’s tariffs

on April 2, U.S. President Donald Trump announced the introduction of “mirror” tariffs against almost all countries in the world (except Russia, Belarus, Cuba, and the DPRK). These tariffs, according to the White House, will be half of the tariff that a particular country has imposed on US goods. For example, China allegedly imposes a 67% tariff on US goods, so the US imposed a 34% tariff on Chinese goods.

For those countries that do not impose special duties on American goods, a basic tariff of 10% was introduced.

Trump called the introduction of such trade barriers “Liberation Day” and said that this day would go down in US history as the beginning of the restoration of the American economy and greatness.

Interestingly, the comparative table released by the White House provides data on tariffs against 185 countries, but Russia is not on the list. Instead, it includes the Herd and McDonald Islands, which were subject to a basic 10% tariff. The only thing is that there is not a single person on these islands.

on April 9, Trump announced that he was postponing the introduction of tariffs for 90 days for those countries that did not impose retaliatory tariffs but contacted Trump to negotiate. According to him, there were more than 75 such countries.