'The country I know no longer exists': Are German tourists shunning the US?
Torsten Schaefer, a spokesperson for the association, said that the figures might have been affected by Easter falling later this year than in 2024.
'We've had practically no requests in recent months to change or cancel reservations,' observed Schaefer, although he added that there has been 'a rise in queries about entry requirements into the United States'.
At the end of March, Germany was one of several European countries which urged their citizens to review their travel documents for the United States, following several widely publicised cases of Europeans being held on arrival and then deported.
Anecdotally, there are signs of Germans choosing not to visit Trump's America.
'The country I knew no longer exists,' said Raphael Gruber, a 60-year-old German doctor who has been taking his family to Cape Cod in Massachusetts every summer since 2018.
'Before, when you told the immigration officer you were there for whale-watching, that was a good reason to come. But now, they are afraid of everything that comes from outside,' he told AFP.
Advertisement
Referring to invasive electronic checks at the US borders, he added: 'I don't want to buy a 'burner' phone just to keep my privacy'.
Muriel Wagner – currently planning a trip to visit a friend at Harvard – takes a different view. 'I've been asked if the political situation and trade war with the US has affected our trip,' said the 34-year-old PhD student said in Frankfurt.
'You can't let yourself be intimidated", she said, adding that she was keen to discuss the tensions with Americans on their home turf.
Similar conversations are taking place in other countries around Europe.
Advertisement
In Britain, Matt Reay, a 35-year-old history teacher from Northamptonshire, said he had scratched the United States off his list, preferring to go to South America, where his "money would probably be better spent".
Reay said he felt "insulted" by both Trump's tariffs on British exports to the United States and comments by Trump's vice president, JD Vance, about Britain as "a random country".
Trump's public belittling of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a White House visit in February was also "outrageous", he said.
According to the US tourism office, however, the number of British visitors to the United States in April rose 15 percent year-on-year, after a 14 percent drop in March.
A body representing much of the French travel sector, Entreprises du Voyage, said the number of French visitors to America dropped eight percent in March, and a further 12 percent in April. It estimated that summer departures to the United States would drop by 11 percent.
Didier Arino, head of the French travel consultancy Protourisme, estimated that the "Trump effect" would cut the number of French tourists going to the United States this year by a quarter.
According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, covering major tourism operators, the US tourism sector – already reeling from Canadians and Mexicans staying away – could lose $12.5 billion in spending by foreign visitors this year.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
DW
8 hours ago
- DW
Greece: Firefighters battle deadly blaze near Athens – DW – 08/09/2025
Three people died as gale-force winds hit Greece, fanning the flames of a wildfire close to the capital. More strong winds are expected in the area, which could further exacerbate blazes in several regions. More than 260 firefighters battled a wildfire near Greece's capital Athens on Saturday, as wind conditions raised alarms about the fire's potential to escalate. The blaze, which has already left one person dead, broke out on Friday in Keratea, a rural area some 43 kilometers (27 miles) southeast of Athens. Two others died after being caught in the gale-force winds. The wildfire, stoked by winds of up to 80 kilometers (50 miles) per hour, destroyed several homes and farmlands in Keratea, setting olive orchards alight. Footage published by local media showed gutted houses. Local officials ordered the evacuation of several homes in the area and an elderly care center. Police went door to door late on Friday night to ensure that the homes had been evacuated. The remains of an elderly man were found in a burned-out structure near Keratea. "The fire has weakened, but there are still active pockets," a fire department spokesman told AFP news agency on Saturday. Several other wildfires were reported across Greece, including regions around the historical site of Ancient Olympia and on the tourist island of Kefalonia. Winds of up to 74 kilometers (46 miles) an hour were forecast for Saturday, Greece's national weather service EMY said. Strong coastal winds also caused the deaths of two Vietnamese tourists, who were on a cruise ship group visiting a lunar-like, volcanic rock beach on the Cycladic island of Milos. The 61-year-old woman fell into the sea at Sarakiniko beach, and a 65-year-old man tried to rescue her, according to the Greek coastguard. After ferry travel for tens of thousands of summer holidaymakers was disrupted by the severe weather, a temporary ban on ships leaving or arriving at Athens ports was lifted on Saturday. In neighbouring Turkey, wildfires caused the Dardanelles Strait, a waterway linking the Aegean Sea with the Sea of Marmara, to be shut temporarily in both directions. Hundreds of people were evacuated from areas close to the blazes in the northwestern province of Canakkale. Greece, Turkey other Mediterranean countries are known for hot and dry summers that scientists have dubbed "a wildfire hot spot." The two neighbors have been enduring a summer heatwave, with temperatures in Athens recently hitting 44 degrees Celsius (111 degrees Fahrenheit). Much of the region around Athens has had barely a drop of rain in months. Forecasters in Greece and Turkey say the risk of wildfire will remain high until October. The fires have become more destructive in recent years due to climate change, scientists say, sparking calls for new ways of tackling the issue. Authorities are under growing pressure to invest in artificial intelligence and satellite monitoring to spot fires before they spread. There are also calls for Mediterranean nations to expand cross-border firefighting collaboration, including shared rapid response teams and water-dropping planes and helicopters. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Int'l Business Times
a day ago
- Int'l Business Times
Vance And Lammy Talk Gaza, Fish As US VP Starts UK Holiday
British foreign minister David Lammy and JD Vance talked Gaza during a meeting on Friday as the US vice president kicked off his holiday in the United Kingdom. Lammy hosted Vance at his country retreat in Chevening in Kent, southeast of London, where the pair went fishing in a carp pond before getting down to business. Vance told reporters the United States had "no plans" to follow Britain by recognising a Palestinian state, as the meeting got under way at the 17th-century mansion. "I don't know what it would mean to really recognise a Palestinian state, given the lack of functional government there," Vance said. He added that he expected President Donald Trump to "talk at some point to the media about his response" to Israel's plan to "take military control" of the Palestinian territory of Gaza. "Our goals are very clear. We want to make it so that Hamas can't attack innocent people. We want to solve humanitarian problems in Gaza," Vance said. The two men also discussed the war in Ukraine ahead of a possible summit next week between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as the US president tries to end the more than three-year-long conflict. Lammy, of the centre-left Labour party, and the Republican Vance have struck up a warm relationship despite their different political strands, bonding over their difficult childhoods and shared Christian faith. Lammy reportedly attended mass at the vice president's residence in Washington in March. Vance said Lammy had become a "good friend" but teased that his three young children were better at fishing than Britain's top diplomat. "Unfortunately, the one strain on the special relationship is that all of my kids caught fish, but the foreign secretary did not," he joked. Vance is due to stay at Chevening throughout the weekend, according to Britain's foreign ministry. His family will then spend some time in the Cotswolds region in western England, UK media have reported. Reports have also said Vance will visit Scotland, where Trump spent five days at his golf resorts last month. While there, he signed a trade deal with European Union chief Ursula von der Leyen and met with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. Trump also played golf and opened a new 18-hole course. He is due back in the UK for a state visit in September.
Int'l Business Times
a day ago
- Int'l Business Times
Two Tourists Die, Fires Erupt In Greece Amid Gale-force Winds
Two Vietnamese tourists died at sea in Greece on Friday, the coastguard said, as gale-force winds confined many ferries to port, disrupting tens of thousands of summer travellers, and sparked wildfires. A coastguard spokeswoman said a man and woman had died at the Sarakiniko beach on the tourist island of Milos in the Cyclades, as firefighters battled blazes near Athens and on the island of Cephalonia. "The man and woman were found unconscious in the sea and were taken to the local health centre," the spokeswoman said. "They were Vietnamese tourists on a cruise ship group. The woman fell in the water and the man apparently tried to save her," she said. The civil protection ministry had said wind gusts would reach 88 kilometres (54 miles) an hour, especially in the southern Aegean and the Sea of Crete. More than 200 firefighters backed by 11 water bombers and seven helicopters were battling a fire in Keratea, southeast of Athens, Costas Tsigkas, head of the association of Greek firefighter officers, told ERT state television. "It's a difficult fire... (owing) to wind gusts," he said, adding that several communities had been evacuated. "The fire front is seven kilometres, homes are under threat," a local mayor, Dimitris Loukas, told ERT, adding that the wind was complicating efforts to douse the blaze from the air. The Cephalonia fire was earlier placed under control, local officials said. National weather service EMY said the winds would weaken after midnight. The coastguard said most ferries were unable to depart on schedule from Piraeus and other Athens ports, especially to the Cyclades or Dodecanese islands. Several services were cancelled and others postponed. At Piraeus, hundreds of people crowded outside a ferry that was bound for the Cycladic islands of Paros and Naxos, waiting for news on a possible departure. Nearby, stranded travellers surrounded by rucksacks and suitcases formed a huge queue outside a ticket office and made desperate phone calls hoping to make rearrangements to save their journeys. "There's huge lines, huge commotion, everyone's waiting in the sun and it's a very tough time," said Philip Elias, an American tourist. Sergi Gros, a 51-year-old civil servant from Spain, said he was scrambling to find last-minute accommodation in Athens for two nights, having already lost his booking on the island of Astypalea. "We arrived at 6:45 in the morning and they told us the ferry was cancelled," Gros told AFP, saying there was a "total lack of information". "I don't think (the hotel) can be refunded because it's not their fault. It's a great shame because we booked with a big (ferry) company, and there are people who reserve months in advance... they left us stranded," he said. Maritime connections with the Saronic islands near Athens including Aegina, Hydra, Poros and Spetses and the Ionian Sea were unaffected, the coastguard said. Strong winds are common in Greece at this time of year, and firefighters have already faced several major blazes this summer, including on the islands of Evia and Chios and in the western Peloponnese.
