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After a blockbuster tourism year in 2024—nearly 65 million visitors strong—New York City was primed to reclaim its pre-pandemic swagger. The five boroughs were on track for a full recovery in 2025, thanks to a record-setting influx of global travelers. Then POTUS happened.
Since returning to the White House, President Donald Trump has launched trade wars, detained foreign tourists and mused about making Canada the 51st state—moves that have tanked the city’s tourism projections. NYC Tourism + Conventions has revised its 2025 visitor estimate downward by 3.5 million, per The New York Times, citing a 17 percent plunge in international travelers. That’s a loss of roughly 800,000 foreign tourists.
And it’s not just about foot traffic in Times Square. Foreign visitors account for half of all tourists' spending in NYC, and they typically stay longer and drop more cash. The city now expects $4 billion less in tourism spending this year than in 2024’s $51 billion haul.
The sharpest drop unsurprisingly comes from Canada, America’s most loyal neighbor and historically its top source of international tourists. After Trump’s threats to annex the country, Canadian hotel bookings in NYC are down by 30-percent for summer and fall 2025, Vijay Dandapani of the Hotel Association of New York City told The City. European visitors are also second-guessing their trips thanks to aggressive border detentions; one German couple was reportedly held for four weeks despite having valid visas, reported the Times.
“Just as we get back up on our feet, we get kicked down again,” Manhattan hotelier John Fitzpatrick told the New York Times. “It’s worrying.”
Tourism operators are feeling the pinch. The Empire State Building Observatory reported a 4.6 percent drop in attendance. Bus tour company TopView Sightseeing told the Times that foreign ridership is down as much as 25 percent, with customers gravitating toward cheaper activities like bike rentals and boat rides.
To counter the dip, the city has rolled out a new campaign, “With Love + Liberty, New York City,” across 18 global markets, reminding the world “that New York City is still the most welcoming, inclusive and diverse city in the world,” according to NYC Tourism CEO Julie Coker.
Let’s hope tourists believe it—before Broadway dims the lights again.