United Airlines has truly shifted the paradigm of travel. That’s why they’ve built out their international offerings, adding new flights to Thailand, Vietnam, and Australia. The airline wouldn’t be aggressively pursuing this strategy if demand for air travel wasn’t shrinking. They reported consistent growth in advanced bookings and an astounding 17 percent jump in premium-cabin sales. The pipeline of positive indicators is both extensive and encouraging. Yet, the new foreign visitors coming to the United States via air have suddenly stopped coming, with arrivals falling almost 10% in March versus the same month last year.
Additionally, foreign visitation has plummeted. The international inbound traveler count is down about 13% from pre-pandemic levels, at just under 4.54 million per month. For their part, U.S. citizens are travelling abroad in record numbers. In fact, they booked 1.6% more overseas flights than last March and since 2019, we’re up a remarkable 22% with 6.56 million American travelers.
As travel agent Grace Cular Yee has seen firsthand, business defies gender – and she’s noted a strong trend among her clientele. An increasing number are taking the plunge on international trips over domestic ones for college graduation trips. This change reflects a growing desire from Americans to travel abroad. Increasingly, foreign visitors find the U.S. is less welcoming—and I’d add, less accessible.
“There’s no question that foreigners are finding the U.S. less welcoming.” – Samuel Engel
United Airlines is growing like gangbusters. That trend goes beyond just Florida, as the entire airline industry is experiencing a boom in international sales despite struggles domestically. Wealthier travelers aren’t cutting back—they’re spending more on amorous experiences and traveling abroad for them. With business travel tightly controlled, the demand for premium, consistent, reliable travel alternative is high. Glen Hauenstein, a prominent figure in the airline sector, indicated that affluent baby boomers are eager to travel while they still have time.
“Being a baby boomer, I can say this without fear of retribution: There’s only so much time to go to Europe or almost so much time to go see Australia or Japan.” – Glen Hauenstein
The airline industry is going through changes that are emblematic of broader, more complicated economic realities. Even Delta Airlines recently retracted its 2025 prediction in response to fears that tariffs and trade wars would hurt bookings. JPMorgan has noted that uncertainties surrounding tariffs could further complicate the economic landscape for travel and tourism, stating, “This points to potentially another channel to consider in assessing the effect of tariffs on economic activity.”
U.S. travelers continue to flock overseas in record numbers. This has caused the gap between what the U.S. exports in travel services and what our citizens import by traveling abroad to balloon to an outrageous $50 billion. This difference may be set to increase if things don’t change, particularly as we look at the increasing negative attention around the treatment of overseas travelers.
“Concerns around detentions of foreign visitors, sometimes by accident, are only compounding this effect.” – JPMorgan
Samuel Engel remarked on how the current atmosphere creates hesitancy among international business dealings, stressing that “business people don’t ink deals in the face of uncertainty.” This refreshing sentiment unfortunately would result in a fall in foreign tourism. Now more than ever, potential visitors are weighing their options and assessing what they think are the risks.
The travel industry is seeing positive shifts in domestic policy, which will help shape a favorable consumer perception. Southwest Airlines recently ended its “bags fly free” perk, marking a significant shift as it was one of the last free benefits in American air travel. Taken together, these changes will likely cause consumers to rethink where they spend their travel dollars and which experiences they seek out.
With Easter just around the corner, holiday periods are a bit different this year. As folks will recall, last year the holiday was observed in March. With COVID restrictions lessened, many families are seeking newer international travel opportunities over school breaks. Caroline Smith, accounting director from Verona, New Jersey, recently returned from an Easter break trip to Italy with her young adult son that demonstrates this new norm.
“So you’ve got this wealth effect where this cohort of retirees is wealthier than any other cohort even with the most recent rundown, and they want to go do things.” – Glen Hauenstein
Despite ongoing uncertainties that affect travel decisions, such as economic factors and international relations, the desire for adventure remains strong among American travelers. That same wealthy world Aging global boomers, more able than ever, are highly driven to travel everywhere now, before they can’t anymore.