I love America. Their cities are the world’s brightest. Their mountains among the most beautiful. The deserts — spectacular. Live music in that country is incredible. The place is a giant smorgasbord of great destinations, coast to coast, Chicago to Austin. And let’s not overlook Hawaii.
But would I go there now? Noooo! No way! And most Aussies are like me. We are avoiding the Land of the Free. Hard pass.
In fact, if you make a list of major destinations and check how much travel has changed since 2015, America is way down the bottom of our no-go list. As the next chart shows, the United States is down near Papua new Guinea and Cambodia. While at the top is Japan.
The USA has seen a decline in visitor numbers since 2015. Credit: Jason Murphy.
Not only has America seen less growth in tourism from Australia since 2015, it has actually gone backwards. Fewer planes coming from Australia, with more empty seats. It’s a huge reversal for a destination that was not only once popular, but literally our favourite place to go.
RELATED
As the next chart shows, America racked up 10 months where it was our most popular destination between 2013 and 2017. (It had more months in the number one spot during 2020-2021 but many of the world’s borders were closed then so it doesn’t count). It was, during this period, always in our top three, alongside New Zealand and Indonesia. But recently, nope.
Japan has grown in popularity while the US has dropped. Credit: Jason Murphy.
Since the world’s borders re-opened, America has struggled to regain its desirability. It fell to third place, then fourth place, fifth and even as low as eighth in January this year.
Why? Well there’s the obvious. But we should not overlook the basic economics of it.
America used to be cheap. That’s a big reason.
As the next chart shows, there were some glorious years where an Australian Dollar bought more than a US dollar. Those were the years where we planned and booked our trips to America, and when America first rose to the top of our list of favourites. It held on as a favourite for a few more years even as our dollar began its slide. But when we came out of our Covid reverie we had to admit America was expensive now.
The decline of the US dollar vs the Aussie dollar has also contributed to falling visitor numbers. Credit: Jason Murphy.
With our dollar under 65 cents (at time of writing) you can’t just pretend the two currencies are equal and round up. You have to admit that while a US Big Mac looks cheap at US$5 that’s actually A$7.50, which is basically the same as home. And over there they add tax and tip to everything. America’s tipping culture has been subject to insane inflation. You are sneered at if you don’t add 20 per cent now. Even though tipping is a percentage, right, so the tips are rising as the cost of goods rise!
Story Continues
America is actually cheap for groceries and fuel, while it is expensive to stay in the big cities and eat at restaurants.
It is not just the prices stopping us from hitting America in big numbers. It is the fact you can show up and have the border guards simply turn you round at the border and send you home. Which is a much better scenario than being strip-searched and then sent home.
America’s border police are mean at the best of times. I’ve travelled to America with someone who, long ago, had a work visa to work in the US. That reliably sets off a ping in the system and they would get dragged off for interrogation — we are there for a two-week holiday but the system presumably worries this person is back trying to work in America illegally. You wouldn’t want to have a connecting flight.
If America was weird about their border before, it is way worse now. The odds are still good, you’ll get in — hundreds of Australians are still going to America every day. But if you have tattoos or have ever posted something mean about America on social media, you may feel better not going.
If it’s purely a leisure trip, Tokyo Disney seems like a much safer option than Disneyland LA.
In Japan the populace is not rioting and the police are not arresting foreigners without due process. You can catch a subway instead of renting a Chevrolet Traverse the size of a semi-trailer, and your odds of being involved in a mass shooting are much lower.
There’s been 199 mass shootings in America so far this year and, it seems, none in Japan since 2023.
I would really like to see the Grand Canyon one day and maybe spend some time in the Rocky Mountains. But I might wait for the Aussie dollar to rise and America’s insecurities to fall, before I book.
Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram.
AloJapan.com