Australian travellers abandon US, spend their money elsewhere

News.com.au

17-06-2025

Australian travellers are continuing to turn their backs on the United States, new data shows.
Experts issuing warnings and cases of tourists being denied entry on arrival (and at times, strip searched and thrown in prison) are spooking foreign visitors.
The global tourism industry has been keeping a close eye on the impact of US President Donald Trump's strict border stance and other controversial government policies like sweeping tariffs are having on travel. Most recently there has been chaos in the tourist hotspot of Los Angeles amid huge protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement's sweeping raids in the city.
Outbound travel from Australia to the United States declined by 6.2 per cent in April compared to last year, despite Aussie outbound travel overall being up 8.3 per cent, according to a new report released by the Australian Travel Industry Association on Monday.
ATIA chief executive Dean Long described the trend as a 'noticeable softening' in Aussies wanting to head to the States.
It comes as news.com.au obtained exclusive data from a Finder survey that revealed 40 per cent of Australian respondents had either cancelled travel plans or would no longer consider the US a place to travel due to stricter immigration vetting. Millenials and Gen Z were the most likely to cancel their plans.
There were 9 per cent who still had their US trips locked in and 51 per cent who had no plans to visit the US but said the enhanced vetting at the border wouldn't stop them if they did.
Sarah Megginson, a personal finance expert at Finder, said perceptions of hostility and the current political climate 'could see Australia's love affair with America fade'.
She warned Australians to check their travel insurance policies carefully before going to the US as many insurers would not provide cover if you are denied entry at the border.
'With tensions rising on American soil, Australians are rethinking holidays to the US at the moment,' Ms Megginson said.
'There's growing sentiment among Australians that the potential issues that could arise when visiting the US are beginning to outweigh the appeal of visiting some of our favourite cities.
'My husband recently got back from a week in Los Angeles, and he noticed a huge shift from previous visits: he was questioned in detail about all aspects of his trip and why he was travelling alone.
'It was a really hostile welcome, and if travellers feel they're being treated like suspects at the border, they'll simply take their travel dollars elsewhere.
'Now with the escalating situation in Los Angeles and huge political tension between Trump and other leaders, it doesn't necessarily feel safe to visit the United States, so it's not surprising to see so many Australians choose to spend their annual leave and their money elsewhere.'
Flight Centre revised its 2025 financial year profit guidance from $365-$405 million to $300-$335 million with Mr Trump's trade and entry policies being a 'significant' contributing factor, and the one major factor that is 'outside [their] control'.
Flight Centre chief executive and founder Graham Turner recently told news.com.au it was an 'unsettled climate' impacting business travel, while tourists worry about passport control and others simply don't want to go to the US 'because they don't like what Donald Trump's doing'.
Mr Turner said in the first three months of this year, leisure bookings to the US from Australia dropped about 12 to 15 per cent on last year, while business travel remained 'on par'. But he anticipated the decline to 'accelerate' for both leisure and business travel in the second quarter of the calendar year — April, May and June.
Another Australian-born travel company, Intrepid Travel, saw globally a 9 per cent decline in US sales for the first four months of the year when compared with the same period last year.
US sales for Australian and New Zealand travellers in particular were down 13 per cent. But other areas such as South America are 'booming'.
As also reflected in the Finder survey results, it appears older Australians are less likely to be deterred by what is happening politically in the US, with this age group actually travelling to the States more on Intrepid trips this year than they did last year.
Leigh Barnes, who is the company's managing director of the Americas, told news.com.au his team had increased their focus on domestic travel within the US, promoting the right products at the right time, and increasing their brand presence.
Mr Barnes relocated his family from Australia to the States for the job in March — the same month that saw the sharpest drop in Australians travelling to the US since during the height of the Covid pandemic, according to US International Trade Administration statistics.
Australian visitor numbers fell 7 per cent in March this year, compared to March 2024 — the biggest drop since March 2021.
Tourism Economics — which forecasts foreign traveller arrivals in the US will sharply decline this year resulting in a loss of $9 billion in spending — said decisions from the Trump administration are creating a 'negative sentiment shift toward the US among travellers'.
The travel data company's April report cited Mr Trump's stance on border security and immigration as one of the factors discouraging visits.
Mr Trump rejects the notion that the country's tourism industry is in any trouble — saying 'tourism is way up'.
Border ordeals that are spooking travellers
Security checks at US airports have garnered much attention in recent months amid Mr Trump's 'enhanced vetting' for arrivals at US airports and cases of tourists being denied entry on arrival, and at times, strip searched and thrown in prison.
Former NSW police officer Nikki Saroukos is one of those people who recently travelled to the US using an Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) under the Visa Waiver Program and was deported, but first she had to spend a night in a federal prison.
She said she was subjected to invasive searches and humiliating treatment for trying to spend time with her US military husband stationed in Hawaii.
The US Department of Homeland Security later issued what it described as a 'fact check' on X after she went public with the ordeal, accusing her of having 'unusual activity on her phone, including 1000 deleted text messages from her husband'.
Homeland Security said 'officers determined that she was travelling for more than just tourism'.
But Ms Saroukos strongly denies having any plans to live permanently in the US.
The Sydney resident, who married her husband Matt in January after a whirlwind long-distance romance, told news.com.au she was 'in disbelief at how ridiculous' the statement was and claimed that some of the information included had been 'twisted'.
Why denied tourists can end up in federal prison
CBP has long had strong powers to deny entry, detain and deport foreigners at their discretion when travellers arrive in the country even if they have a valid visa or ESTA. However, what we are seeing under the Trump administration is described as 'enhanced vetting'.
Australians are being warned to not assume they are exempt to more intense checks, including inspections of emails, text messages or social media accounts at the airport.
Melissa Vincenty, a US immigration lawyer and Australian migration agent who is managing director of Worldwide Migration Partners, told news.com.au recently that being taken to federal prison with no criminal record, no drugs or anything that is a danger to society is the reality of being denied entry to the US in Hawaii.
Ms Vincenty, a dual-citizen who was a deportation defence lawyer in Honolulu before moving to Australia, explained the state did not have an immigration facility so people were taken to the Federal Detention Center Honolulu, where there was no separate wing for immigration.
It meant tourists who were denied entry to the US could be held alongside those awaiting trial — or who have been convicted and were waiting to be transferred to a mainland prison for serious federal crimes, such as kidnapping, bank robbery or drug crimes.
'It's like in the movies — you go there and there's bars, you get strip searched, all your stuff is taken away from you, you're not allowed to call anybody, nobody knows where you are,' Ms Vincenty told news.com.au in April after the experience of two young German tourists being strip searched and thrown in prison made global headlines.
Ms Vincenty said for Australians who were denied entry to the US in other locations like Los Angeles, San Francisco or Dallas, being held in detention facilities until the next available flight home was a real risk as there weren't constant return flights to Australia — meaning you might have to wait until the next day.
If not taken to a detention facility, some travellers may stay sitting for hours in what is called a secondary inspection at the airport.
A secondary inspection includes further vetting such as searching travellers' electronic devices.
'That period can last from half an hour to 15 hours or more,' she said.