Fewer people are interested in coming from overseas to vacation in San Francisco and Las Vegas following President Donald Trump’s inauguration, an Internet travel booking site has found.
Hopper, which provides would-be tourists with flight information, says that searches for international plane tickets to the US fell 17% between the week before the inauguration and the week after. Of the 122 countries that keep travel data for their residents, 94 have seen at least some drop in interest.
Last year, interest in traveling to the U.S. dropped around 2% over that same period, so the plunge would strongly appear to have something to do with Trump.
In the week following Trump’s Executive Order banning immigration, interest in visiting the United States fell even further, particularly among countries named in the EO. Of course, it’s not like they could travel to America anyway.
Ironically, the city most likely to fall victim to widespread Trump-related anxiety is San Francisco, which claims to be “leading the way” in resisting the Trump Administration’s agenda. Interest in the Bay Area was down a third from last year.
Baltimore, Las Vegas and Los Angeles were next on the list, all hovering around a 23% loss in interest.
A potential slide in tourism is dangerous for American businesses. Around 8 million people are employed in the hospitality industry in the US. In 2015, the hotel industry alone did around $190 billion in revenue.
Slight increases and decreases in travel interest could end up costing companies a lot of money—and, potentially, a lot of jobs.