US immigration policies affect its tourism industry

The restrictive policies of Trump administration have affected its tourism sector’s earnings, with its industry analysts going so far as to term it ‘Trump slump’.

The analysts were quoted by Newsweek as saying that immigration policies of President Donald Trump have deterred millions of foreigners from Visiting America and it has cost the country’s economy about billions of dollars.

Since Trump came to power, the number of foreign tourists coming to the US dropped by close to four percent in the first half of 2017 as against the same period of 2016, the latest data from the US Department of Commerce and the US National Travel and Tourism Office revealed.

Even a minor fall in tourism numbers can cause the US economy to lose billions of dollars. Forbes was quoted as saying that the American Travel and Tourism industry, in 2016, contributed over $1.5 trillion to the country’s revenues and also provided employment to 7.6 million people.

It is said that 1.2 million American Jobs are supported by travel spending of foreign tourists, making up for close to $32.4 billion in earnings. Moreover, the typical international tourists spend about $4,360 during a stay of 18 days in the US.

The last one year of Trump’s tenure witnessed the introduction of a travel ban on six countries whose population is predominantly Muslim and removal of deportation protections for asylum seekers have hurt the hospitality sector, analysts said.

It is said that the Visitor Visa process was slowed by the administration as their applications were placed in ‘administrative processing’ and forcing them, therefore, to undergo heightened security checks.

Another blow to the tourism industry was the administration’s move to abolish TPS (Temporary Protection Status) for over 60,000 refugees from Nicaragua and Haiti who fled their countries owing to natural disasters.

To add to it, Kristjen Nielson, the new US DHS (Department of Homeland Security) Secretary is also planning on deporting almost 200,000 refugees of El Salvador.

As many employees of the US Tourism industry belonging to El Salvador, Haiti and Honduras, employers in America would need to spend $967 million on training new employees if they are deported.

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