By South China Morning Post | Created at 2025-04-02 05:56:21 | Updated at 2025-04-03 06:37:24
1 day ago
French hotel group Accor has warned that forward bookings from Europe to the United States are down 25 per cent this summer as travellers who feel put off by US President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration divert to other locations.
The company is seeing a “pretty strong deceleration” across the Atlantic, chief executive officer Sébastien Bazin said. The drop is an acceleration from an 18-20 per cent decline in the first 90 days of the year, he said. Travellers are deciding to visit places such as Canada, South America and Egypt instead of the US, Bazin said.
“It’s probably anxiety to go in an unknown territory,” Bazin said. While cases of people being detained at the border are anecdotal for now, they have nevertheless created a “bad buzz” that has started to show up in booking trends, he said.
“You don’t need any bad buzz today,” Bazin said.
Transatlantic travel has long been a mainstay of airlines and tourism companies, counting as one of the most lucrative routes anywhere in the world.
