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Before a Washington state judge suspended enforcement of President Trump’s refugee and immigration ban, travel organizations from ASTA to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) had voiced concern that the original order would discourage travel and harm the U.S. economy.
Industry trade associations and companies mostly complained that the order, which banned the citizens of seven countries from entering the U.S. for 90 days, painted the U.S. as unwelcoming to travelers and that the confusion around its implementation had created an environment of uncertainty, which is never good for the industry.
ASTA CEO Zane Kerby said, “It’s clear from our member feedback that the developments of the past few weeks have injected a great deal of uncertainty into the travel industry, from disruption for travelers to or from the seven countries flagged by the administration to fear about how Americans will be received abroad to aborted business and leisure trips.”
He added: “ASTA is concerned that ongoing uncertainty will create a chilling effect on travel and negatively impact our members’ businesses. We therefore once again urge the administration to expeditiously set clear rules of the road so that travel industry stakeholders can serve their clients, that travel disruptions are kept to a minimum and that the traveling public can maintain confidence in an industry vital to our nation’s economy.”
Trade groups representing the inbound travel industry expressed concern that the order made the U.S. appear unwelcoming and would ultimately have a negative impact on visitor numbers.
Lisa Simon, executive director of the International Inbound Travel Association said that the order, “along with other plans by the administration to strengthen security,” could have a negative effect and said her organization’s members were concerned about a prolonged disruption to inbound travel if clarification on the order’s implementation was not issued swiftly.
Simon said that the impact went beyond people who originally could not visit the U.S. as a direct result of the order, to “those who may be afraid to come due to the lack of clarity and other restrictions being discussed by the administration; and those who may simply choose not to come in response to the current political climate.”
National Tour Association president Pam Inman also said her members were worried.
“Based on member feedback, we know these recent actions are giving international visitors the wrong perception of the United States,” Inman said. “We are a welcoming country.”
Holding their breath, fingers crossed
Despite their concerns, tour operators that bring travelers into the U.S. said that in the days following the original order, they had not seen any dip in arrivals.
John Warner, vice president of global sales for Toronto-based G Adventures, said that as of last week, the U.S. remained a popular destination for G Adventures travelers from around the globe, including Canada, mainland Europe, the U.K., Australia and New Zealand, after a month in which visits to the U.S. from these regions were up 12% compared with January 2015.
Warner acknowledged that there were indications that travel to the U.S. could still be negatively impacted due to media coverage of Trump’s new policies coupled with the weakness of the pound and euro against the U.S. dollar.
But, he added, “As a global travel provider, we are accustomed to seeing changes in leadership and policies and the adverse impacts they can have on short-term travel trends. We remain optimistic that inbound travel guidance to the U.S. will soon become more clear and that the U.S. will continue to welcome vacation travelers of all nationalities.”
Intrepid Travel, too, said the company was optimistic about the U.S. maintaining its position as a popular travel destination.
“In light of the recent policy announcement by president Trump, we are not anticipating our travelers will stop visiting the United States,” said Intrepid Travel director Leigh Barnes. “Nor do we expect our U.S. travelers will be deterred from visiting countries around the world.”
Barnes said that Intrepid’s U.S. bookings have reached record numbers already this year, with inbound travel to the U.S. from the Australia and New Zealand market up 89% compared with the same time last year. Visits from the U.K. were up more than 200%.
However, before the order was suspended, a poll by the Global Business Travel Association (GBTA) found that 31% of its members expected the ban to reduce their companies’ business travel in the next three months.
The survey’s respondents were chiefly worried about the potential for other countries to respond to the ban, with 63% citing that as a cause for concern as well as the potential for complications in traveling to the U.S. (56%) and increased threats to U.S. travelers abroad (54%).
When it came to their own travelers, 55% said they were concerned about “green card and approved visa credibility to enter the U.S.” Fifty percent were concerned about increased harassment in general as well as harassment of U.S. travelers going to and from the Middle East. Another 22% did not have any of the listed concerns.
The GBTA found that 29% of those polled believed the ban would affect their company’s business travel for the next three to six months, while 28% said they felt the impact would last from six to 12 months and beyond.
“Business travel drives lasting business growth and is a leading indicator for jobs,” GBTA COO Michael McCormick said. “With 30% of companies expected to reduce travel, the economy will certainly take a hit.”
Notably absent from the chorus of strong reactions to the travel ban was the U.S. Travel Association, which merely urged the administration to conduct its review “quickly,” and Brand USA, which issued no response to the order and did not respond to requests for comment.
Iran specialists hit hard
Most travel agents in the U.S. do not sell much travel to or from the seven targeted countries: Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen.
But for the subset of agents who specialize in selling Iran, the original travel ban seriously impacted their businesses.
Parisa Parsi of Cyrus Travel in Irvine, Calif., said cancellations had come in swiftly, about 10 per day, and even more troubling, new bookings had ground to a halt during what is usually a busy time, as Iranians living in the U.S. plan trips coinciding with Nowruz, the Persian new year, on March 21.
“Business is down just as we started to sell for the [Persian] new year and when a lot of people get their tickets for the summer,” Parsi said. “Now the business is totally down from both sides: Nobody purchased new tickets and those who already purchased want a refund.”
Parsi said that even Iranians with U.S. green cards were afraid to travel.
“They are concerned that the rules will change again,” she said. “They say, ‘We are traveling to Iran now, but after three months, if we want to return the rules could change and there will be another ban for even green-card holders.’ There are a lot of cancellations.”
General travel agents also reported having clients caught up in the travel ban.
Peter Carideo, president of CRC Travel in Chicago, said that an Iranian-born client who is a U.S. citizen and has lived here for 50 years decided not to travel abroad after Carideo pointed out that his passport says he was born in Iran. The client decided to travel domestically, fearing he might have trouble getting back home.
“We think we’re being overly cautious, but they don’t want to have any issue,” Carideo said. “There is no prevailing logic in the way things are being handled, so we have to err on the side of caution for now. I don’t trust that people are applying [the executive order] the same way across the board.”
This proved true for another agent’s client, who seemed to be mistakenly caught up in the travel ban’s confusing rollout. Sara Butruff, owner of Travel Leaders in Apple Valley, Minn., said a client with a British passport and a Canadian green card was not able to board a flight from Minnesota back home to Calgary, Alberta, with Delta saying his Canadian green card prevented him from being able to board the plane.
“It makes no sense,” Butruff said. “He is not a part of the seven-country ban. He is a regular green-card holder from one of our allies. It must have been a massive fluke in the system.”
A Delta spokesperson said that scenario did not make sense but added, “We don’t comment on an individual customer’s situation.”
Butruff is now careful to ask all clients about their citizenship status in any foreign country to be sure they are prepared. Other than that, the travel ban has only impacted her in terms of questions from clients about last week’s chaos at the airports.
“We just make sure to tell them to arrive early and give themselves extra time,” she said. “You just never know.”
Threats of retaliation
For tour operators that sell tours to Iran and have been touting surging interest in the country over the last year, Iran’s threat to take reciprocal action in response to Trump’s order and possibly ban U.S. visitors was the most pressing concern.
Following Trump’s order, Iran’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement threatening that the Iranian government “will take reciprocal measures in order to safeguard the rights of its citizens.”
Adding to the confusion, Iran’s foreign minister, Javad Zarif, tweeted later that, “All with valid Iranian visa will be gladly welcomed.”
In the absence of any concrete action, tour operators with Iran itineraries said last week they were proceeding with departures as planned.
Late last Thursday, Wilderness Adventures said it had been informed that while Iran would honor already issued visas, no new visas would be issued to U.S. travelers. As of press time, however, all other tour operators contacted by Travel Weekly said they had not been informed by Iran of any new visa restrictions.
G Adventures, whose U.S. sales to Iran doubled in the last year, notified the nearly 30 U.S. nationals currently booked on its Iran: Discover Persia tours that U.S. passport holders with valid visas would be allowed entry into Iran and that it had been advised that U.S. passport holders with approval from Iran’s Foreign Ministry for their letter of invitation would be able to submit visa applications.
However, Warner said, the company also warns that for U.S. citizens planning to apply for an Iranian visas in the future, “approval remains uncertain.” G Adventures is allowing Iran travelers to cancel their Iran trip and transfer the funds to another tour without penalty.
George Morgan-Grenville, founder and CEO of upscale travel company Red Savannah, which just launched a series of escorted tours for 2017 that includes a 10-day Iran in the Footsteps of the Persian Empire itinerary, said, “At this stage, we’re certainly not panicking about it.”
If Americans are eventually told they can’t come, he said, Red Savannah will refund any deposits or payments.
Intrepid Travel, which has been running Iran tours since 2012, said the country has been the company’s fastest-growing destination in the Middle East, with 35% growth among North American travelers last year. Thus far, Intrepid has not had any Iran cancellations and said U.S. travel to Iran is “business as usual for now.”
At least one tour operator in Iran that works with U.S. travelers said there had been no cancellations thus far, attributing that to the type of Americans who tend to go to Iran.
“The American … tourists are more hard-core cultural tourists,” said Pari Ahmadi with the Iran Traveling Center. “They seem to have weathered a lot of situations like this in the past and seem to be unfazed and to take it in stride.”
However, Ahmadi said things could change.
“We are in a period of complete uncertainty, to say the least,” Ahmadi said.
Sourse: travelweekly.com
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