U.S. Tourism Is Sliding and the World Cup Hasn't Fixed It

Overseas visits to the U.S. drop sharply in May as Western Europe stays home, World Cup host cities spend millions on welcome campaigns to fight a perception problem, and a ten-year look at hotels vs. OTAs reveals who actually won. On today's Skift Daily Briefing, Sarah Dandashy breaks down why inbound tourism is still sliding even as the World Cup kicks off, how host cities are betting big-budget welcome campaigns can overcome visa headlines and entry policy concerns, and why the real winner of the hotel vs. OTA war wasn't market share — it was margin. Articles Referenced: Honorable Mention: @AskAConcierge on IGOverseas Travel to the United States May DeclineWorld Cup Tourism Campaign VideosHotels Tried to Cut Out Expedia. Here's What Happened. Connect with Skift LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skift/ WhatsApp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaAL375LikgIXmNPYQ0L/ Facebook: https://facebook.com/skiftnews Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/skiftnews/ Threads: https://www.threads.net/@skiftnews Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/skiftnews.bsky.social X: https://twitter.com/skift Subscribe to @SkiftNews and never miss an update from the travel industry.