Trump slump ‘unfounded’

AUSTRALIAN travellers are undeterred to visit the United States following the election of “controversial US President” Donald Trump, results of a new Roy Morgan study has concluded.

The number of Aussies who indicated they would like to holiday in the US for at least one night in the next two years (after Trump was elected in Nov 2016), has actually gone up compared to a year earlier by 0.5% to 17.9%.

Roy Morgan ceo Michele Levine said the research of 15,000+ Aussies shows Trump has not had a negative impact on holiday plans to the US as “some feared”.

“Concerns that the election of Donald Trump...would negatively impact travel to the United States appear unfounded from an Australian perspective,” she said.

“The increasing desire to holiday in the US is part of a broader trend with significantly more Australians than a year ago indicating they would like to take an overseas holiday in the next two years: 48.5% cf. 46.8%.”

Roy Morgan’s findings came ahead of the US National Travel & Tourism Office’s (NTTO) release of its six year forecast for int’l travel 2017-2022, which tipped a 2% decline in visitors from Australia last year, compared to 2016.

NTTO’s outlook however expected a return to increased visitation by Aussies year-on-year, rising 4% this year, 3% annually between 2019-2021 and jumping 5% in 2022 to 1.57 million arrivals - an overall forecast increase of 228,000 from the 1.34m in 2016.