Eleven travel industry CEOs joined U.S. Travel’s Geoff Freeman at the White House to pitch President Trump on making the U.S. the world’s most visited country, with the goal of 100 million international visitors a year by 2030. Freeman followed up on LinkedIn by reminding everyone that Trump holds the U.S. record with nearly 80 million visitors in 2018 and saying the industry was ready to help him “break his own record.”
I commented that conveniently ignoring what’s happened to international visitation since then struck me as a convenient omission (though I did use more colorful language). Apparently I wasn’t alone. The comment got more than 100 likes, and plenty of others piled on about both the message and the optics. When I went back looking for my comment on the post while writing this story, it was gone. Make of that what you will.
But what shouldn’t disappear are the numbers. In 2018 we had 80 million visitors while the 2026 forecast is 70 million, a staggering 10 million visitor downgrade, in the World Cup Year! Overseas visitation has declined year over year for four straight months, and 56% of Canadian travelers say U.S. government policies, trade practices and political statements make them less likely to visit.
So yes, let’s shoot for 100 million. But before congratulating the President on what happened eight years ago in the early days of his first term, our industry leaders might want to have a more candid conversation about what’s happening right now.
And then there’s the photo. Eleven CEOs representing some of the biggest companies in travel gathered to discuss the future of one of the world’s most diverse industries, and every one of them was a man. Something plenty of people in the LinkedIn comments noticed. We talk endlessly in hospitality about diversity, representation, and developing the next generation of leaders. Yet when our industry gets one of its biggest tables, somehow the people sitting around it still don’t look much like the people who work in it.
Getting to 100 million visitors is a worthy goal. But it’s going to take more than a flattering photo op, some selective nostalgia for 2018, and a room full of guys telling the President what he wants to hear. For those in the room, you may want to have another read of The Emperor’s New Clothes.
