Has the US lost its allure for Irish tourists due to Trump?

Irish travel to the US drops 27% as geopolitical tensions, rising costs, and changing sentiment reshape international tourism trends in 2025

Travel agents in Ireland have reported a drop in visitors to the US, but Easter in April may have an impact. 

Whether it be a city get-away to New York, a family trip to Disney World in Orlando, Florida, or a glitzy weekend spent in Las Vegas, the US has been a very popular holiday destination for tourists around the world for many years, including Irish people, of whom nearly half a million travelled to the country last year.

However, the last few months has seen the world’s perception of the US radically change with President Donald Trump straining relations with countries around the world. He and his administration have heavily criticised and targeted some of the country’s closest allies in multiple areas, including openly advocating for the US to take over other countries, namely Greenland and Canada.

Mr Trump’s tariff announcement on April 2 was just the latest punch he has thrown in the directions of the country’s closest trading partners, forcing many to consider implementing retaliatory tariffs.

Volatility in the stock and bond markets seems to have forced Mr Trump’s hand and he quickly reversed, reducing tariffs down to 10% for all imports — except those coming from China which are now subject to a 145% tariff.

All of Mr Trump’s actions adds to the uncertainty in the US, increases the risk of recession, raises prices on goods and tarnishes the image of the US abroad, putting at risk the billions of tourism dollars it receives every year.

Crackdown on immigration

This is all without mentioning the harsh crackdown on immigration the US is also implementing.

Data published earlier this week by the US International Trade Administration (ITA) showed arrivals of non-citizens into the US by plane dropped by 10% in March compared to a year earlier.

For Irish people, the drop was more significant. During March, just under 39,000 people who normally live in Ireland travelled to the US, which is down 27% compared to the same period last year.

According to the data, during 2024, just under 500,000 Irish residents travelled to the US, between those travelling on tourism visas, business visas, and student visas.

During the first quarter of this year, just over 105,000 Irish resident people travelled to the US compared to just under of 120,000 during the same period last year.

The world’s perception of the US has radically changed with President Donald Trump straining relations with countries around the world.

While that might be a big decline year-on-year, the Easter holiday is an important factor for many Irish holiday-makers. During 2024, the Easter holidays were in March, which may have been the impetus for a surge in trips to the US.

Tom Randles, president of the Irish Travel Agents Association and managing director at Barters TravelNet, said in terms of the leisure market, “we have seen a small drop of holidaymakers travelling to Orlando and the West Coast”.

“However, Nashville and Vegas, two recent routes for Aer Lingus, are selling well. 

“While there has been a decline in the number of Irish travellers visiting the US for March 2025 compared to 2024, it is worth noting that Easter is almost a month later this year,” he added.

Paul Hackett, chief executive of Click & Go Holidays, said the timing of the Easter holidays was an important factor when looking at the US travel data.

“Easter was in March 2024. When the schools are on holidays, that does take up the volume of traffic,” he said.

Mr Hackett said you would think that with everything that has been happening in the US, it should be impacting tourism into the country.

“You're kind of correlating the two, but on the ground at the moment, we're not seeing it. I think given the level of media coverage, I think we may start to see something,” he said.

With schools currently on Easter break, it will be interesting to see whether the trend continues and Irish people take the decision not to travel to the US this month.

Click & Go’s Travel Sentiment Survey for the first quarter of the year found 66% of people have not yet booked their 2025 holidays, with their primary concerns being either prices are too high, cited by 36% of people, or that they are waiting for holiday prices to fall, cited by 30% of people.

"The consumer this year in general seems to be slow when it comes to decision-making for holidays, and there's a far higher proportion of consumers for all destinations that have not yet booked,” Mr Hackett said.

Corporate travel

On the corporate travel side, Mr Randles said ITAA corporate travel agents were reporting they had experienced a drop in corporate travel to the US.

“When they are travelling, some companies with a European base, are requesting employees travel via Ireland because of the advantages of US pre-clearance,” he said.

Eoghan Corry, travel and aviation expert, said March and April figures were always “messy”, given Easter moves around but the “forward bookings from the Irish tour operators are well ahead of last year”.

"We've more routes this year than we had before. We've got 22 Aer Lingus routes, and over 30 between all the airlines. We've got new destinations like Nashville, Detroit and Indianapolis coming in. The bookings are strong because the access is good.” 

The decline in Irish people travelling to the US might be interesting, but in the grand scheme of things, it is a very small change in terms of the amount of people from all over the world who travel to the US every year.

Data from the US ITA points towards a noted downturn in not just Irish visitors to the country but a decline in tourists from countries around the world.

Ireland is not the only country seeing a decline in visitors to the US. Tourists to the US from Denmark are down 34%, German tourists are down 28.2%, and Norwegian tourists are down 24.6%, to name just a few.

The majority of European countries saw a decline in their residents travelling to the US during March compared to last year. There was an increase recorded in a handful of countries.

Should the US continue to lose out on valuable spending from tourists, it could add to the potential recession risk in the country.

Arrivals of non-citizens to the US by plane dropped almost 10% in March compared to the same month last year. Investment bank Goldman Sachs estimates in a worst-case scenario, the hit this year from reduced travel and boycotts of US products could total 0.3% of gross domestic product, which would amount to almost $90bn (€79.2bn). 

International travellers

International travellers spent a record $254bn in the US last year, according to ITA figures. Coming into 2025, the outlook was positive, with the ITA projecting in early March that the US would welcome 77 million visitors this year, just shy of the 2019 record.

But those estimates came out just before stories of harsh detentions at US airports, ensnaring travellers from countries like France and Germany, started making headlines. Major public institutions in Canada, including a pension management firm and a leading hospital, are now advising staff against travelling to the US.

Early signs of a sharp pullback in the US are already showing up. Airfares, hotel rates and car rental costs fell in March, according to a monthly Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

The US as a holiday destination is potentially losing its allure across the world, which is not being helped by the actions of the Trump administration. The actions he has taken against other countries, particularly the EU, Canada, Mexico, and China, will not endear their citizens to the US, and they may decide to spend their money somewhere else or even closer to home.

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The US is not the only tourism market that has been seeing a noticeable shift in recent months — Central Statistics Office (CSO) data from February shows about 304,300 foreign visitors completed a trip to Ireland during the month — a fall of 30% compared to the same period last year.

The visitors spent a combined €196m on their trips, excluding fares, down 31% compared with February 2024. The average length of stay for foreign resident overnight visitors was 5.9 nights, down from an average of 6.2 nights in February 2024.

Britain accounted for the largest number of visitors, accounting for 49% of the total number, followed by the US at 10%.

However, while the US still accounted for a large proportion of tourists to Ireland during the month, the total number was still down over 15,000 to about 31,200 compared to the same period last year. A similar trend was seen in visitors from Britain, with 48,300 fewer tourists to Ireland compared to last year.

Mr Corry said some of the declines seen in the CSO figures have to do with changes to its methodology.

However, he also pointed out US tourism to Ireland could be very dependent on pension funds, and if there is turmoil in the markets, tourists' excess spending will go down.

"The turmoil that was in the stock exchange is going to filter through to that. So that's a bigger threat,” he said.