Trump imposes travel ban as US tourism faces voluntary boycotts
June 5, 2025
Donald Trump has signed a sweeping travel ban affecting citizens from 19 countries as the US tourism industry already grapples with declining visitor numbers. Olivia Palamountain reports
Donald Trump has doubled down on his immigration crackdown with a comprehensive new travel ban.
From June 9, citizens from 12 countries - including Afghanistan, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen - will be completely banned from travelling to the US, whilst those from seven others including Cuba and Venezuela face partial restrictions, according to the BBC.
"We don't want them," Trump said as he announced the ban, citing security concerns and visa overstay rates. The White House accused Iran and Cuba of being "state sponsors of terrorism" and described Somalia as "a terrorist safe haven."
The entry of people from seven other countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela, will be partially restricted.
"We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm," Trump said in a video posted on X. He said the list could be revised and new countries could be added (Reuters).
The proclamation is effective on June 9, 2025 at 12:01 am EDT (0401 GMT). Visas issued before that date will not be revoked, the order said (Reuters).
However, the travel restrictions come as international visitors are already choosing to avoid the US voluntarily.
Research by the travel intelligence platform Mabrian has found that fewer international tourists are considering travel to the US relative to 2024, reflecting a growing sense of uncertainty and caution among travellers.
The insight was extracted from Mabrian’s Share of Searches Index, a proprietary survey that measures the demand market share positioning of the US based on spontaneous global flight search behaviour. It tracks millions of weekly flight searches to the US from Europe, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) and Australia.
Mabrian’s research is just one of many consumer travel surveys that reflect a significant shift in the relationship between the US and the wider world. The recent ‘Right-sized American Summer’ survey published by Deloitte indicated that Americans themselves are increasingly prioritising road trips over flying, while other platforms and research bodies talk of the “Donald Dash” in reference to the surge of US citizens looking to emigrate. Find Globetrender's full report here.
Canada, which sends more than 20 million visitors annually (more than any other nation) saw border crossings drop by more than 20% in February alone, according to Statistics Canada.
Germany, the UK, Denmark, Finland and Portugal have all issued travel warnings following reports of Canadian and European tourists being detained despite having valid documents.
The combined effect of official bans and voluntary boycotts threatens what had recently been celebrated as the world's top tourism market, worth US$2.36tn to the US economy, according to the WTTC.
