TRUMP ‘IS NOT HARMING AMERICAN TOURISM’

Travel transcends politics, the man in charge of marketing the US to the world has told Telegraph Travel, contesting that the controversial presidency of Donald Trump is having a negative impact on the American tourism industry.

A fall in the number of arrivals to America in 2016 was labelled the “Trump Slump” and seen as a

consequence of the president’s outspoken views. The Global Business Travel Association said the US economy was losing up to £140million a week because of the slowdown.

The UN’s tourist agency said visitors were down again in 2017 by four per cent in the first six months, including a fall in British travellers, but the US’s own figures showed 0.7 per cent growth for the year.

Tom Garzilli, chief marketing officer for Brand USA, the country’s tourist board, said that Trump was not deterring visitors. “What we have found, and this is true of travel all over the world, is it really transcends politics, it transcends the issues of the day,” he said. “People are travelling, people want to have great experiences. We know that we offer these things and our job is to get up and remind, educate and inspire.”

Garzilli remains confident Britons will continue to travel to America over the coming years, despite a weak pound. “What I’ve really learnt in the five years I’ve been [at Brand USA] is enforcing that the world really loves America,” he said. “The world wants to know America, they want to come.”

In a Telegraph Travel poll conducted at the start of the year, 56 per cent of