Travelers walk along a concourse at Reagan National Airport on July 19, 2024, in Arlington, Virginia. Photo by AP
Business travel to the U.S., the world’s largest economy, fell 9% in April amid anger over the Trump administration’s tariffs and border policies.
The National Travel and Tourism Office released preliminary figures Thursday showing the number of airline and ship passengers who entered the country last month using business visas.
The Middle East was the only region that saw higher business travel to the U.S., with arrivals up 9.4% compared to April 2024. But that did not make up for big losses from other regions; the number of business travelers from Western Europe fell 17.7%, for example.
The new government data did not include people coming from Canada for business or who traveled by land from Mexico. Mexican arrivals by air for those holding business visas were down 11.8%, the government said.
And overall travel from Canada also fell in April. According to Statistics Canada, Canadian residents’ return trips by air from the U.S. fell 20% in April, while return trips by car were down 35%.
Business travel to the U.S. held up better than leisure travel in the first quarter of the year. According to U.S. government data, more than 1.2 million travelers entered the U.S. using business visas in the January-March period, up 7% from the year before. The number of travelers using tourist visas fell 6%.
