US hotels slash their prices to attract tourists after Trump becomes president
Holidaymakers have been put off travelling to the USA thanks to 'Muslim ban' and the strong dollar
BRITS could bag themselves a bargain holiday in the US this year, thanks to Donald Trump.
American hotels and airlines are slashing their prices to attract customers, after tourism slumped following the reality star’s election as president in January, according to the head of Expedia.
Dara Khosrowshahi, chief executive of the online travel company, has warned that holidaymakers will be put off travelling to the USA thanks to both harsh immigration policies and the strong dollar.
As a result, hotels, resorts and airlines will most likely have to drop their prices to convince tourists that they still want to book a trip.
He told the : “One of two things is going to happen – either the US has to go on sale in order to keep volumes up, or volumes are going to come down.
“When we look at our business, the leading indicator is pricing – pricing has come down.”
International travel to the US was reportedly down by 6.5 percent compared to last year during the first week after the president’s first attempt at the ban in January.
During that period, the travel software company also found that reservations for flights to the US fell by 14 percent from Western Europe and 38 percent from the Middle East.
United, Delta and American Airlines all saw a dip in revenue passenger miles – the basic amount of “production” that an airline creates – in February, when compared to the same month in the previous year.
The travel guide Frommers has predicted that the numbers of foreign tourists visiting the US will decline by 6.8 percent this year.
If the slump continues, British holidaymakers are likely to see lower prices for hotel rooms in popular American tourist destinations like Florida and Hawaii.
Combined that with the current price battle for trans-Atlantic flights on low-cost airlines, that could lead to some very good deals on holidays by the end of the year.
The election has been good for some tourist spots though – according to reports, the Statue Of liberty has seen a surge in visitor numbers since Trump’s election.
The New York Times has reported that the number of people boarding boats that sail to the statue has gone up by 15 percent in February compared to the same time last year.