The US State Department’s recent announcement on the suspension of visa processing in 75 countries recently sent shockwaves throughout the world.
This is the most recent in a string of orders restricting entry into the United States, many of which cite national security as their primary raison d’etre.
But while safeguarding national security is all well and good, we have to wonder if the relevant authorities have taken into consideration the repercussions the move will have on an already struggling economy.
Indeed, restrictions often harm economies by controlling movement too broadly, thus affecting travellers already within a country’s jurisdiction while discouraging others from even thinking about planning trips.
If we go by the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC)’s report from May 2025, the United States stood to lose up to US$12.5 billion in tourist spending; at the time, the visa restrictions applied to just 38 countries.
Now, with processing suspended in an additional 75 nations, the deficit expected in 2026 could be significantly larger.
One of the hardest visas to get
To provide some historical context, then-US consul-general to the Philippines Michael R Schimmel declared in 2011 that seven out of every ten applications for a US visa would come away approved.
Schimmel said: “We very much want to see Filipinos visit the US. It’s in everybody’s interest for Filipinos to travel to the US. We want to promote American businesses. Travel is a huge American business. We want to see Philippine nationals come to the US for a wide range of reasons.”
While the Philippines isn’t on either list of countries on the suspension list, Filipinos thinking of travelling to the United States for business, pleasure, and even family matters are thinking twice, especially when a country of significant global standing like Thailand was named among the areas covered by the new restrictions.
The sentiment is shared by many of its neighbours throughout Southeast Asia, especially given the following ways by which the visa application process has become more difficult:
- Stricter scrutiny of personal details Aside from financials, employment history, and even proof of a lack of criminal record, US immigration officials now delve into one’s activity on social media. Not only do other nations see this as a violation of privacy as well as censorship of an individual’s right to self-expression, but it is also seen as a form of prejudiced red-tagging and witch-hunting for potential “enemies of the state;”
- The challenge of proving non-immigrant intent It is no longer enough for individuals to merely say that they will be returning to their home countries after either a brief stay for a corporate meeting or a much longer one for education. Immigration officials now require applicants to show solid proof of their ties to their countries of origin, and even this may not be enough to convince them to allow an applicant entry to the US;
- Massive post-pandemic backlog This is a problem not strictly tied to US embassies, but to any embassy operating anywhere in the world. When most countries reopened their borders in early 2023, embassies found themselves dealing with an immense backlog of visa applications spanning three years. Even with the use of advanced software for processing, some are still wading through applications dating as far back as Q4-2019;
- Third-country application is no longer an option From personal experience in the 1980s, the long lines of visa applicants at the US Embassy in Manila drove my family to apply for our tourist visas in a third country; in our case, it was Malaysia. We weren’t the only ones, and some would go as far as Thailand to get their visas. Now, under stricter regulations, this is no longer possible, and applicants need to sweat it out at the local embassy in their country of origin to apply for one.
Falling numbers
While American outbound travel is surging, it is increasingly apparent that inbound travel from key markets has all but dried up completely.
Consider this: arrivals from the United Kingdom, one of the US’ most vital source markets, are down by over 15 percent year-on-year as of mid-2025.
At the same time, arrivals from Germany are down 28 percent, while those from South Korea are down by nearly 15 percent; even the US’ northern neighbour Canada isn’t keen on heading south for the holidays, arrivals from that end dropping by more than 20 percent in the summer of 2025.
Indeed, the WTTC notes that the overall shortfall in foreign arrivals to the US could run between 24 percent and 33 percent.
The repercussions are starting to show
According to the same WTTC report cited above, the travel and tourism sector contributed US$2.6 trillion to the US economy in 2024, supporting over 20 million jobs, raising over US$585 billion in tax revenues, and covering seven percent of all government income.
The hospitality sector, in particular, is feeling the pinch of the restrictions and the overall negative sentiment regarding travel to the US: hotels and other accommodations throughout the United States collectively lost around US$12 billion in revenues in the past year, reflecting a significant decline in revenues per available room (RevPAR).
Government shutdowns which also led to issues regarding travel and transportation also significantly impacted US hospitality, leading to revenue losses worth around US$1.2 billion.
Theme parks, one of the biggest money spinners for US tourism, likewise reported a lackluster summer in 2025, with major players like Six Flags recording a 17 percent drop in overall attendance, and domestic Disney Parks losing 783,000 visitors during what should have been its strongest season.
In fact, it is interesting to note that attendance at Disney’s foreign parks in China, France, and Japan reported a 25 percent surge in attendance numbers in the past year, with travellers opting not to go to the US to get their Disney fix.
Is there a way forward from here?
Admittedly, how the visa restrictions issue will play out over the long run is largely dependent on how things will develop throughout the next several months.
But the WTTC has certainly not minced words: in order to keep US travel and tourism from a significant slump, its government needs to immediately address travel access, rebuild international marketing efforts, and restore global traveller confidence in the country.
Visa restrictions aside, however, global travellers are keeping a close watch on the current sociopolitical situation in the US and are, prudently, opting to keep their distance for now.
