I live close to the famous Venice Beach boardwalk in Los Angeles, one of the most popular tourist spots in California and, by extension, the United States. The Venice Beach boardwalk is so famous, in fact, that it is one of just a few stops on Sandra & Dennis’s German-language bus tours. Every summer, I will be walking my dog and dozens of people visiting from Germany will hop off the bus to “experience the American way of life” at a famous beach that has been in many movies, is famous for Muscle Beach, the skatepark, the surfing, and the many trashy t-shirt and souvenir shops.
These throngs of tourists are just one small part of Los Angeles’ tourism industry, but they are a hyperspecific one. Almost everyone who does these tours is visiting the United States from Germany. By all accounts, tourism to the United States has plummeted due to the Trump administration detaining random tourists, plummeting perceptions and boycotts of the United States due to his trade war, and the fact he is sending some immigrants to the El Salvadorian megaprison CECOT. Many countries have issued travel advisories for tourists wanting to visit the United States, and Goldman Sachs estimates that the U.S. could miss out on as much as $90 billion in revenue from a fall in tourism and Trump’s trade war.
The American tourism industry is sooooooo screwed.
— Jon Cooper (@joncooper-us.bsky.social) 2025-04-26T12:54:00.673Z
Tuesday, Trump said “tourism is way up,” a ludicrous statement that is refuted by every statistic or bit of information that we have seen so far. Here is another anecdotal data point: Sandra & Dennis’s bus tours, which cater directly to German tourists, have seen a 30 percent drop in bookings from German visitors this summer.
In most cases, accurately estimating the impact of Trump’s haphazard and messy immigration policies on any individual business is quite difficult. But because Sandra & Dennis’s bus tours cater directly to German tourists, I thought I would email them to see if there has been an impact on their business. Their company’s website is entirely in German, even though the company itself is based in Los Angeles. Owner Dennis Sulies responded quickly, and said that the company has “definitely noticed a drop—about 30 percent—in bookings from German visitors to LA.”
Sulies said that it remains difficult for him to determine what percentage drop is due to Trump’s policies and how much of it is due to the wildfires that devastated Los Angeles in January. The wildfires were not Trump’s fault, but, in one of his first acts as President, Trump portrayed Los Angeles as a hellhole; most of Los Angeles remains totally open. Trump’s administration, meanwhile, has gutted FEMA and climate research arms of the government.
“The decline started earlier this year, and while the current tariff discussions are certainly a factor, the first major hit came in January. That’s when a lot of families typically plan their vacations, and unfortunately, media reports in Germany were showing LA as being engulfed in wildfires. That really discouraged early bookings,” Sulies said. “The political climate, including Trump’s return and administration policies, has added to the general uncertainty. So while the tariffs are a newer concern, the combination of media coverage and political shifts has already had a visible impact on tourism from Germany.”
“That said, we’ve also seen a small positive effect from falling airfares. Lower prices are attracting new, more spontaneous travelers who jump on last-minute bargain flights to the U.S. It’s a different customer segment, but it helps balance things out a bit. As for immigration, most Europeans—including our German guests—enter with an ESTA, and we haven’t heard any specific issues or complaints. The entry process still seems to be running fairly smoothly,” he added. “Overall, we still believe the U.S. is a safe and welcoming country to visit, regardless of the administration in power.” ESTA is an online visa waiver program available to tourists from the European Union and from several other countries.
If the last thing you heard about LA was the fires, I live here and I can tell you that the vast majority of the city remains fully functioning and a perfectly good place for tourists to visit despite the awful tragedy of the fires. That being said, it is completely understandable that international visitors would decide not to come here as the Trump administration threatens undocumented immigrants, people here on visas, and tourists and wages a unilateral trade war on the entire world. The losers in this case are the American businesses and cities that rely on tourists and the revenue they bring in to make ends meet.
