It's a bad time to vacation in America [View all]

"A pivot moment": Some travel agents are now urging their clients to avoid the United States
Tourists are cancelling their trips, spooked by recent incidents that suggest the U.S. is not a safe place to be

By Tatyana Tandanpolie
Staff Reporter
Published March 22, 2025 6:00AM (EDT)


(Salon) By midday Wednesday, Canadian travel agent Micheline Dion had received another two emails from clients canceling their travel plans to the United States or voicing worries about their safety should they keep them. One client sought to nix his cruise out of Puerto Rico, while another wrote that they were worried about visiting Rochester, N.Y. this coming May.

Their messages all stemmed from "fears of how they will be treated, their safety," and whether they'll be allowed entry, Dion, who is based in Ontario, told Salon. "No one wants to enter a possible volatile situation and even worse be denied entry."

Dion said she's been receiving an influx of these emails from clients since President Donald Trump began targeting Canada and enacting his crackdown on immigration — and as stories of U.S. border officers denying entry to or detaining tourists in harrowing conditions made international headlines. Since Trump took office in January, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has detained at least four tourists, three from Europe and one from Canada, each for upwards of 10 days after they attempted to enter the country. U.S. Customs and Border Protection has also been denying entry to foreign nationals — in one French scientist's case, doing so over text messages criticizing President Donald Trump.

The combination has made potential visitors scared to travel to the U.S. out of fear they, too, will be detained, turned away or targeted. Now some travel agents, like Dion, are loathe to encourage U.S.-bound trips altogether. .................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2025/03/22/a-pivot-moment-some-travel-agents-are-now-urging-their-clients-to-avoid-the-united-states/