US tourism faces loss as global visitors dwindle

Visits to the United States by Chinese and international tourists were down at the beginning of this year compared to last year, prompting a warning from a travel data firm that it could cost the industry billions in lost revenue.

Tourism Economics, an industry monitoring group, revised its travel forecasts for visitors to the US in February from a predicted growth of 9 percent this year to a decline of 5.1 percent. If that is followed by a drop in demand for hotels by 0.8 percent, it could cause an $18 billion falloff in spending this year.

According to the National Travel and Tourism Office of the US Commerce Department, the number of overseas visitors to the US fell 2.4 percent in February compared with the corresponding time last year. Visits from China fell by 11 percent, African countries 9 percent, other parts of Asia 7 percent and Central America 6 percent.