U.S. President Donald Trump, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem visit a medical tent at a temporary migrant detention center informally known as "Alligator Alcatraz" in Ochopee, Florida, U.S., July 1, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
British newspaper The Telegraph has written a scathing rebuke of President Donald Trump's "anti-tourism" measures, saying they have turned America into "one of the world's least welcoming countries."
"Donald Trump’s anti-tourism measures and a federal lock down are making travel to the States increasingly fraught – and that’s a shame," writes TheTelegraph's Robert Jackman.
The government shutdown, Jackman sarcastically says, is good news, because "you shouldn’t encounter any problems getting to America in the first place, given that both airport security and border control are deemed essential services (and thus are expected to be running as normal)."
For visitors to Washington D.C., "on nearby Capitol Hill, the visitor centre has already closed down in what will be a crushing blow for any West Wing obsessives," he says.
And while national parks can't shut down like a visitor's center can, Jackman says, "Europe has history, while America has geography – meaning that the Grand Canyon and Zion National Park are as important to America’s tourism sector as stately homes are to ours."
"Now just imagine if Blenheim Palace had to warn visitors to stay away because [Prime Minister] Keir Starmer had suspended its funding until MPs agreed to pass his budget," he writes.
Wondering if the Trump administration has become "too cavalier"when it comes to America's tourism industry, Jackman notes that "it wouldn’t be the first time that the White House had chosen to sacrifice the US tourism sector in order to pursue its wider Maga agenda."
One example Jackman cites is Trump's "enthusiasm to tighten visa rules – including those which apply to standard tourists – to extreme ends in order to reduce any risk of illegal immigration," and the new requirement "for certain visa applicants to deposit a hefty fee (at least $250, and up to $10,000 in some cases) to prove they won’t abscond when they enter the States."
And though these fees don't apply to British tourists, Jackman says, they do "send a strong sign as to where Trump’s priorities lie."
Another example of America pulling away the welcome mat is seen in "travelers being detained and deported for what most of us would consider careless behavior at worst," such as a 28-year-old Welsh tourist who was detained for 19 days when immigration officials discovered she was planning to undertake voluntary work in the US in return for free boarding.
The scrutiny of tourists' social media feeds has also turned off visitors and been cause for confusion, Jackman says, because "given the President himself has called for those expressing anti-American views to have their visas revoked, it’s hardly implausible that a border officer might jump the gun a bit."
Just last week, when the NFL announced Puerto Rican megastar Bad Bunny as the Super Bowl's halftime headliner, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem warned that only “law-abiding Americans” should attend, insisting immigration authorities will be patrolling the stadium.
"Did Secretary Noem mean to imply that non-nationals aren’t welcome at one of the biggest sporting events in America?" Jackson ponders. "You can understand why some travllers – particularly those from south of the border – might think twice about making the trip to California."
As the numbers continue to show plummeting rates of tourism in hot spots like Las Vegas, Miami and California, based on Trump's policies and international tourist reaction to them, things are only expected to get worse, Jackman says.
"You’d think that a President who has spent five decades leveraging his own personal brand to such brilliant effect would see the value in protecting America’s reputation for friendliness to tourists," he says.
"Instead the White House seems content to sit back while friendly foreigners are turned off by a barrage of negative stories about what might await them if they make the trip," he adds.