New York is expected to welcome 400,000 less tourists this year than in 2024, a decline leading mainly to a negative feeling to the United States between foreign travelers who have reviewed their vacation.
The tourist agency of the city, tourism and conventions of the city of the city, had entered 2025 with optimism after the Coronavirus pandemic that interrupted the journey five years ago and had a full recovery this year with a visitor.
However, the Agency has twice revised down the initial prediction of 67.6 million visitors – international and domestic – since President Trump declared a trade war on the allies, talked about the annexation of other countries and the influence of a repression of immigration.
The latest forecast, which will be released on Thursday, now estimates that 64.1 million tourists will visit the city. This includes 400,000 more domestic travelers than last year, but 800,000 fewer foreign travelers.
The new prediction sees 12.1 million international travelers, a decrease of 17 % from the previous views of 2025. The decline has been driven by the rejection of Canada tourists, who have boycotted trips to the United States about Mr Trump’s threat of 51st US.
International trips to the United States from other parts of the world have been largely held so far, but New York is based on Canadian tourists. Travel analysts are afraid that ongoing economic uncertainty could fight travel plans from the rest of the world.
While many more domestic travelers visit New York than internationals, visitors abroad tend to stay longer and spend more. Last year, tourists spent $ 51 billion in New York – about half of foreign travelers. The expenditure this year is projected to be reduced by $ 4 billion.
Julie Coker, head of Tourism and New York conventions, said her delegation traded the city in foreign countries with a campaign entitled “With Love + Liberty of New York”.
The organization, a non -profit organization that is partially funded by the city, wants travelers to know, said: “New York is still the most hospitable, comprehensive and different city in the world.”
Tourism is a vital pillar of the New York economy. The industry helps to maintain many sectors – including Broadway, Museums and Restaurants – and employs more than 260,000 people.
So far, about 117,000 less foreign passengers arrived at Kennedy International Airport and Newark Liberty International Airport compared to the same period in 2024, according to a New York Times passenger data analysis.
The hotel’s possession rates in New York have remained relatively flat this year, but bookings for the coming summer months, a top city trip in the city, have not happened last year, according to Costar, a real estate analysis company.
John Fitzpatrick, who holds two hotel hotels in Manhattan, said he felt extremely positive for tourism in the city at the end of 2024, with reservations in his properties having the strongest months from the pandemic.
But now, he said, the bookings are about 5 % from last year. Its hotels lost the prediction of April, reservations for May are under projections and reservations in the coming months are not as strong as expected.
“Just as we take back to our feet, we get kicked again,” Fitzpatrick said. “It’s alarming.”
In talks with Europeans during recent trips to Ireland, where he also holds a hotel, Mr Fitzpatrick said he had heard that he was not only upset about invoices, but they are also afraid that they could be kept by immigration authorities in the United States.
The debate was one of the most aggressive tactics of the US border authorities in port ports, including detention of two German tourists for four weeks, he said.
“You want to go where you feel welcome,” Fitzpatrick said.
Some tourist spots in New York have begun to report on customers. The Empire State Building Observatory operator said it saw a 4.6 % reduction in people in the first three months of the year compared to last year, adjusting to Easter holiday shift this year. About 50 percent of its visitors come from abroad.
Topview Sightseeing, which takes advantage of a two -bus fleet in Manhattan, has seen customers reduced by 20 to 25 percent. The owner of the company, Asen Kostadinov, said the fall began about a year ago and has worsened in 2025, with a remarkable decline in foreign travelers.
Mr Kostadinov said travelers seem to be more aware of the budget, keeping the lower cost packages with his company more and more. He has also seen an increase in the business at the bicycle rental company near Central Park and the statue of Liberty Cruise Tours, both of which charge less than bus travel. In comparison, businesses in London’s Bus Company has increased this year, he said.
As a result of the shortest business in New York and financial uncertainty, Mr Kostadinov said he has left some company employees, cuts bus drivers and postponed the scheduled investments, including a new bus warehouse.
“There is no doubt that invoices cause some kind of anti-American feeling,” Mr Kostadinov said. “I’m an immigrant and I love America, but at the end of the day, we don’t want to make enemies for no reason.”
