There has been a reduction in the number of tourists who are coming to the US. There was a decline in the number of tourists who visited the US in 2018. Now, this trend still exists in 2019. The number of Chinese tourists to the US is even lower than in 2018. The loss of Chinese tourists bringing business to the US is not good news for US businesses of travel and tourism.
In 2018, there had been a decline in the number of Chinese tourists by 6% since 2017. However, the major decline has happened in the number of Chinese tourists coming to the US, and an increase in Chinese students and business visitors to the US. In 2017, the number of visitors to the US from China were 2,265,789which became 2,037,867 in the year 2018. This represents a 10% reduction in the number of tourists from China to the US. But, the total change in the number of visitors from China to the US was not 10%, in fact, due to the increase in tourists, the reduction was 6% from 2017 to 2018.
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Decline in Chinese tourists from 2018- 2019
There has been a decline in Chinese visitors in 2019. Comparing the period of January to May 2019, to the same periods in 2018, the percentage of decline in visitors was 5.3% whereas the number of student arrivals was high for the same period. So, this decline in the number of tourists shows a lesser issuance of B1/B2 visas to Chinese nationals. There has also been increased scrutiny for Chinese nationals and increasing visa rejection is there since 2016.
There has been a denial rate of the B1/B2 visa of 17% in 2018, much higher than the denial rates in 2016 and 2017 at 12.4% and 14.6%. Trump government had specifically given a directive to the Department of Homeland Security, which involved an increased screening of visas. The reason behind this decline is the tariff war between the two countries. Mr. Trump has been following a highly strict immigration policy due to which this has happened.
There has been a huge decline in the sales to tourists in the US, to the tune of 25% because of such reduction in tourists. Earlier buses full of Chinese tourists used to come to Los Angeles, but the scene has changed a lot now.
Another reason behind this decline of Chinese tourists is that the Chinese government has made it cheaper to get luxury goods into the country by reducing tariffs. So, there is no need to go to the US to buy such luxury goods.
So, if the US modifies some of its trade policies, the negative impact on the number of Chinese tourists can be removed. However, how soon this will happen is not known.
You can contact Nile Migration for getting the B1/B2 visa of the US. You can stay on the B1 visa in the US for a maximum period of 6 months. This is a useful visa to enter into business contracts when in the US while the B2 visa is for pleasure visits to the US.