'I didn't vote for him': How American tourists are navigating global perceptions

USA Today

25-05-2025

'I didn't vote for him': How American tourists are navigating global perceptions
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Canadian travel to US plummets following Trump's tariff threats
After U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff threats, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged people to travel domestically.
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Some American travelers are reconsidering international trips due to concerns about U.S. politics and potential negative perceptions abroad.
A Global Rescue survey found that 72% of respondents believe Americans will be perceived more negatively abroad in 2025.
While some Americans are cautious about their identity abroad, others continue to travel internationally but are mindful of political discussions.
Terry and Chris Wells consider themselves seasoned travelers, typically going on a few overseas trips annually. But this is the first year their summer trip won't be to an international destination.
The Georgia-based couple had planned a trip to Seoul this August – even having their hotel booked – when "everything that's been in the press" about U.S. politics and rising conflicts with other countries prompted them to reconsider, said Terry Wells, 54. They put the South Korean capital back on their bucket list and decided to visit her brother in Hawaii instead.
Though Wells doesn't believe she and her husband, 56, would be unsafe in Seoul, "there's just too much going on" with the political climate that makes her uncomfortable. "I'm not sure. I'm just anxious and I'm rarely anxious," she said.
The Wells aren't the only travelers who hesitate to identify themselves as Americans when abroad. A growing number of U.S. travelers worry they'll face hostility when overseas – that their American label will make them unwelcome by others inflamed by President Donald Trump's comments or policies.
Some are anxious, while others are embarrassed about being associated with the volatile political landscape in the United States.
A survey in April by Global Rescue found that 72% of the 11,000 respondents – the majority of whom are based in Canada and the United States – believe Americans will be "perceived more negatively abroad in 2025 due to recent U.S. international policy proposals." The concern follows recent U.S. foreign policy moves and an outspoken president who has stirred tensions with other countries, from trade wars to stricter immigration policies to high-profile deportations – along with rhetoric about annexing Greenland and Canada.
As some foreigners have turned to boycotting the United States, American travelers are wondering how far the stigma will go when they travel internationally.
"We would proudly wear that Fourth of July T-shirt with the American flag overseas, and we had no issues," Wells said. "Definitely not (now) − that's like wearing a target on our backs."
Treading lightly as an American
Although domestic travel and nearby getaways like the Caribbean are set to boom this summer, not every American is giving up their major international trip, according to Expedia's Summer Travel Outlook. Searches for long-haul destinations like Italy, Spain and Japan are up, and the perennial tropical locales of Cancún, Mexico, and Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, remain strong among Americans, the travel platform found.
When Americans are abroad, however, they're cautious about how they're seen once in new borders – if they even mention where they're from. Alicia Walter, 29, and Nate Stark, 41, have been traveling around the world for the past five years. Just recently, they've noticed a new kind of reaction from people upon learning they're American. Since the November election, conversations with locals have often turned to Trump – a subject the couple said tends to spark strong opinions.
When the full-time travel content creators, who share their trips as The Passport Couple, were in the quaint Italian village of Santa Severa early in May, a local asked why they were visiting and wondered whether they were "trying to escape Trump." The couple politely laughed it off.
"It just seems like every single time we say we're from the U.S. now, it comes back to (Trump), which is a lot more than it used to be," Walter said.
The couple said the political discourse doesn't make them feel unsafe or nervous to travel abroad, but they introduce themselves as Californians to steer the topic from being directly about the United States. "We never bring unnecessary attention to the fact that we're American."
They do their best to evade diving into any political discussions and stay courteous. "We just always try to avoid the conversation," Walter said. "We just are super-vague about our responses."
Other travelers take a bolder approach. Alessandra Riao, a tour guide based in Naples, Italy, said she has noticed more Americans with whom she works are "genuinely concerned" about how Europeans will react to them. Last month, two American visitors told her they were considering wearing pins that read "I didn't vote for him."
'A taboo conversation'
Riao added, however, that she has yet to witness or hear any locals react negatively toward tourists. "Neapolitans are famously welcoming, and political differences rarely get in the way of personal connection," she said. "While the concern is real before the trip, it usually fades once they experience the warmth and openness of the city." Part of that, she noted, could be because many people's livelihoods depend on tourism.
Jack Napton, a traveler from Tahoe, California, had a similar experience to what Riao has reported on his trip to several European countries in April. Beforehand, he was worried about possible backlash as not only a tourist but an American one at that. He was most "concerned" about visiting Spain after having read several articles about the country's movement against overtourism, including locals spraying travelers with water guns at protests.
After two days exploring Barcelona, Spain, Napton was surprised at the lack of political discourse. "This is where I had heard there might be anti-Trump sentiment, (and) nothing," Napton, 79, said after the trip. "I was on two different tours, with people from multiple countries, no political talk at all."
In Athens, Greece, one of Napton's taxi drivers spoke of Trump and was "all for it." But keeping an open mind, Napton wasn't offended by the polite conversation, even if it was an opinion he disagreed with. In fact, he said, that's why he likes to travel.
Even when locals do bring up Trump, Stark and Walter reflected on why it makes them uncomfortable. They think it's Americans who feel as if political topics are "taboo conversation" compared with people in other cultures. "If someone were to say that in the U.S., just like on the street to a stranger, that is potential for a heated conversation," Walter said.
The couple have no plans to curb their international travel, however. "Any country we've ever visited, even countries that have more political tensions with us, they've still been very welcoming to us as tourists," Stark said.