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(Text/Deng Wenjing Edited by Zhao Qiankun)

As Harris secures the Democratic presidential nomination, her policy differences with Republican presidential candidate Trump have become the focus of media attention.

On August 2, Skift, an American travel information website, published a report titled "A Comparison between Trump and Harris on International Travel and Visa Issues". The article believes that no matter who enters the White House, it will affect the development of inbound tourism in the United States. To this end, Skift reviewed and analyzed the international travel and visa data of the last two governments.

The report mentioned that when comparing relevant data and policies, the main focus was on the first three years of Trump's term. Overall, during the Trump era, the number of international tourists increased slightly in the early days, and then remained flat; after Biden took office as US President and Harris took office as Vice President, the number of international tourists grew rapidly from a low base, but has not yet returned to the level of 2019.

Statistics on the number of international tourists in the United States in the past seven years (unit: 10,000 people)

According to the main data, the number of international tourists to the United States increased by more than 2 million between 2017 and 2018; it dropped to 79.4 million in 2019; and it will be 66.5 million in 2023.

The report also mentioned that from the perspective of representative policies, the two have very different styles. Trump prefers the "tight" approach, while the other side advocates "looseness". In 2017, Trump successively issued travel bans on many countries in the Middle East, Africa and other countries. Affected by the new crown epidemic, the number of international travelers to the United States in 2020 has dropped significantly. During this period, the United States issued a ban - non-Americans who have been in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Ireland, China and 26 countries in the Schengen area of ​​Europe in the 14 days before entering the United States will be restricted from entering.

In 2021, the Biden administration also imposed entry restrictions on travelers who had been to India and eight African countries. However, by the end of the year, the Biden administration lifted all travel bans and implemented a quarantine screening policy. This adjustment has caused the US inbound tourism market to pick up in 2021 and gradually approach the level of 2019.

Skift's report also shows that similar trends are also shown in visa policies. According to data from the US State Department, the number of visitor visas declined during the Trump administration before the outbreak. The Trump administration implemented stricter screening and review procedures for visa applicants from countries marked as posing higher security risks. The Biden administration has accelerated the review of visitor visa applications to address the backlog of visa applications during the epidemic and shortened the waiting time.

Since China is one of the largest source countries for tourists to the United States, the report emphasizes the Chinese market. During the Trump era, the tensions in Sino-US relations had a significant impact on the tourism industry, with the number of Chinese tourists falling from 3.2 million in 2017 to 2.8 million in 2019. It is worth noting that due to various factors such as geopolitics, the number of flights between China and the United States has not yet returned to pre-epidemic levels, and high air ticket prices have made it more difficult for Chinese tourists to enter the United States. In 2023, the United States received only 1.1 million Chinese tourists.

In addition, the dollar gradually strengthened in 2023, making travel to the United States more expensive for tourists from countries with weak currencies, such as Japan.

This article is an exclusive article of Observer.com and may not be reproduced without authorization.