Fewer Australians continue to travel to the United States, recently released American government data has revealed, with US travel down around 8 per cent to start the year.
According to data from the National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) – part of the International Trade Administration (ITA) – 131,156 Australians travelled to the US in January and February 2026, compared to 142,008 arrivals in the corresponding period in 2025. This reflects a significant 7.64 per cent drop and marks the ninth straight month of decline.
Globally (excluding Canada and Mexico, the US’s biggest markets), 4,631,910 visitors arrived in the US during the two months, down slightly year-on-year from 4,720,678.
Worryingly for US tourism authorities, the average monthly downswing from June to January was around 10 per cent from Australia. But in a glimmer of hope, the y-o-y decline in February was just 2.4 per cent – although February and March are generally the lowest months for travel to the US.
1 in 2 rethink US
The NTTO data comes after a study showed more than half (51%) of Aussies are less inclined to travel to the US.
According to the Southern Cross Travel Insurance (SCTI) survey, which was conducted in late 2025 (so before the US and Israel-Iran war broke out about a month ago), the US led the destinations those polled were most concerned about, placing higher than the Middle East (36%) and China (28%).
In the study, politics tops the list of travel turn-offs, with two in three (63%) respondents avoiding destinations for that reason. Crime (42%), high costs and health risks (32% each), and negative word of mouth (30%) also weigh heavily.
Concerns about political unrest will hardly be tempered by the “No Kings” protests held in the States on Saturday, which organisers predicted would be the “single largest non-violent day of action” in US history, NBC News reported.
From 20 trips to two
Andrew Sullivan, Director of The Don’t Forget Travel Group, says he has had “very little request for travel to USA this year”.
“And by very little, I mean only two trips,” he tells Karryon.
The trips are going ahead, at least, but not without some nervousness.
“A family decided they wanted to take their kids to Disneyland. Then of course the stuff in Iran started happening and they got quite nervous about whether they should actually go to the USA purely because that were worried that there might be some attacks in the USA,” Sullivan says.
“But they decided in the end it was all okay and they’re going to go ahead with the trip.”
While the US doesn’t make up a major part of Sullivan’s normal business (which is more Europe-focused), he says he would “normally do around 15-20 trips a year to the US”.
“So only two enquiries/bookings… is a big drop for me,” he explains.
“In general, there has been a deathly silence on people talking about travelling to mainland USA.”
Bucking the trend?
At least one state that could be bucking the downward trend in visitation is Alaska.
“Of course, Alaska is a different story as people are still travelling to Alaska to cruise,” Sullivan says.
Likewise, he remarks that “it hasn’t seemed to have had an effect on travel to Canada”.
In February, Alaska Travel Industry Association research found that around 2.7 million travellers arrived in the state between May and September 2025, 66% of whom were cruise visitors, 31% were air visitors, and 3% were highway/ferry visitors. This was a small increase (less than one per cent) on the same period the year before, led by higher air arrivals.
KARRYON UNPACKS: While US tourism authorities shouldn’t be panicked (yet), Aussie sentiment towards the States is clearly shifting, and not just because of price. Politics and perception now play a bigger role in decision-making. For travel advisors, that means more reassurance, more context and, increasingly, more creative alternatives to keep bookings moving.
