Americans find ways to not be 'too American' while travelling

The Star

a day ago

As Franck Verhaeghe and two friends planned a March trip to Mexico City, Mexico they plotted out not only where they would stay and which museums they would visit but also the language they would speak: French.
'It's not that I think it's unsafe for Americans,' said Verhaeghe, 65, who lives in California, the United States, but '... I can imagine people there aren't very happy with us.
'So my friends and I decided that on this trip, we would all just speak French to each other.'
Two months into his second term, US president Donald Trump has set off panic in Europe about the potential collapse of alliances; inspired boycotts of American products in Canada; heightened tensions between Denmark and Greenland over the island's independence; and prompted protests in Istanbul and Panama over the possibility of US territorial expansion.
His proposals are also making some Americans reconsider their travel plans.
Behaviour adjustments
Since the inauguration, some agencies are noticing a drop in sales for international travel by Americans. Tour operators are fielding inquiries from customers concerned about how they will be received abroad. The risk management company Global Rescue recently conducted a survey that found that 72% of 'experienced' US travellers expected Americans to be less welcome abroad this year.
The nervousness does not seem to have translated into widespread cancellations, but social media and travel forums are filled with Americans asking variations of, 'Will they hate us?'
Christine Bauer, a retiree from New Hampshire who is planning a trip to France, asked travellers on a Rick Steves' Europe forum for insight into how the French were responding to American foreign policy changes. A few days later, she grew more worried when 'Trump and Musk began insulting NATO and allied countries'.
She and her husband haven't made any changes 'at least for now', but they are 'hoping that travel doesn't become more unsafe'.
Vicci Jaffe, 68, has second thoughts about an excursion to Berlin, Germany this fall. Her concern stems not only from the rise of the far right in Germany, but also from political changes at home.
'How will I be regarded while in Berlin?' she asked. 'At the very least, I am embarrassed, but also now afraid of retribution or violence.'
Some people, including Verhaeghe, who is travelling to Mexico using his second passport (it's European), are adjusting their behaviour. Cheryl Carlson, 63, an educator in Chicago, Illinois, plans to reveal her nationality ahead of time to the owners of the accommodations she and her husband will be staying in during a trip to Canada. This is '... to make sure our presence would not cause a small business to feel uncomfortable hosting us.'
Peter Serkian, 60, who travels to Canada twice a month from Michigan, pays in Canadian dollars, not US dollars. 'I try to hide that I am an American,' he said.
Feeling spooked
Those measures are preventive – none of the interviewees for this article have actually experienced anti-American sentiment. But the nervousness is taking its toll. Cameron Hewitt, content and editorial director for Rick Steves' Europe, has seen a dip in guidebook sales, 'literally starting the day of the inauguration', he said.
Lisa Wirth, owner of Ataxito which offers tours to Oaxaca, Mexico, said that some prospective guests are feeling spooked. 'We had several American travellers decide to cancel a week-long tour in February, either because the travel partners they had planned on travelling with backed out due to concerns regarding safety in Mexico or because the current administration and their anxiety around it caused them to pause any trip decisions in the short term,' she said.
Others are postponing because of 'concerns regarding inflation and job losses'.
Jack Ezon, founder of Embark Beyond, a New York-based luxury travel company, had a client cancel a trip to Mexico. 'They were doing a birthday trip and had booked out the whole hotel,' he said. 'But this was right after the whole tariff thing, and their security team said, 'Don't go, there's anti-American sentiment, it's going to be too dangerous'.'
That fear has not been borne out in the experience of other clients, said Ezon, who added that bookings to Mexico have rebounded. And sales to Europe are booming. 'Ever since Covid-19, the recovery from crisis is a lot faster,' he said.
It's hard to pinpoint the cause for travellers' unease. Plane crashes, tariffs and stock market instability have contributed, said Jeff Roy, executive vice president of the tour company Collette.
'We've been a little bit behind for the last four to five weeks from what we were producing last year at this time,' Roy said. 'There's so much swirling around right now, it's really hard to know exactly what's causing the change.'
What Roy describes as 'mild trepidation' is playing out more in nervous calls than in cancella­tions. And because many bookings are made far in advance, he's not too worried about this year. If the uncertainty continues, he said, 'I don't know about 2026.'
Apparently, lots of people wanted to know more about Greenland after Trump announced that the US wanted to 'buy' the territory.
Unexpected interest
A few destinations have experienced increased interest since Trump took office. After he said that he wanted the US to 'buy' Greenland – one of The New York Times' '52 places to go in 2025' – the Greenland tourist authority said it was seeing evidence of 'piqued curiosity about the destination'.
The new attention has had a similar effect on Panama, whose canal Trump has said he wants the US to 'reclaim'. Carlos Ivan Espinosa, the owner of Panama Canal Tours, said his company has experienced a significant increase in bookings by US tourists. 'Trump's declarations,' he said, 'are awakening curiosity.'
That isn't to say there haven't been protests against American rhetoric, notably in Canada, where citizens have objected to Trump's tariffs as well as his expressed desire to turn the country into 'the 51st state'.
But those protests aren't directed against American individuals, said Donna Salter, a retired journalist in Vancouver. She, like many Canadians, is swearing off travel to the US for the duration of this administra­tion but welcomes Americans. 'We love Americans and we also love the American dollar, especially now,' Salter said.
Not all foreigners are receptive. One TikTok user in Scotland told 'MAGA tourists' that they are not welcome, and a farmer on the Danish island of Bornholm terminated an agreement he had with a US travel agency to receive tourists in his home for coffee and a chat.
Panama has experienced a significant increase in tour and hotel bookings from Americans. — Photos: Pixabay
'I would feel ridiculous if I had to discuss democracy with representatives of such a government,' Knud Andersen, the farmer, told the Danish broadcaster DR.
On a trip to Italy, California-based Rebecca Andersons and her family had a taxi driver whose criticisms of American politics started with former US president Ronald Reagan and ended with Trump. Andersons told him they were 'too young to vote for Reagan and actually are Californians who voted for Harris'.
Apparently forgiven, they later found themselves singing along with the driver to Volare.
Other Americans are adopting tactics designed to deflect criticism, like answering the question 'Where are you from?' with their state's name. Sue Rook Nichols from California ordered buttons off Etsy that read, 'I didn't vote for him.' She plans to wear them on a trip to Europe.
The tactics may not be necessary. Mariana Hamman, who owns a tour agency in Mexico, said that none of her colleagues had reported encountering anti-American sentiment.
'Sometimes you see 'Go home, gringo' graffiti,' she said. 'But that's about overtourism, not politics.'
When David Rojas-Klein, of California, travelled to Mexico recently, his expectation that he would 'see something anti-American' never materialised. 'What I learned was that people make a distinction between the American people and the American government.'
The fear that people in other countries will equate them with their politicians' actions is a peculiarly American anxiety, one that also surfaced during the Gulf War, said Hewitt of Rick Steves' Europe.
'If you look at history, most European countries have had experience with a ruler who, especially in retrospect, they're not particularly proud of.'
Bo Albertus, a 57-year-old school principal in Denmark, agrees. He administers a Danish Facebook group, 89,000 strong, that is dedicated to boycotting American products. But American citizens are welcome in his country, Albertus said.
'The Danish people don't have a problem with Americans. We have a problem with the American administration.'
Even a tourist in a MAGA hat would be treated fine, he added, 'Because in Denmark, we have freedom of speech.' – LISA ABEND/©2025 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.