Michael McCormick, executive director and chief operating officer, at GBTA reckoned there was a perception that the U.S. was no longer a welcoming destination for business travel.
International bookings to the U.S. since the first travel ban was announced had dropped by 6.5 percent, according to travel monitoring platform ForwardKeys.
After the first travel ban was blocked in court, President Trump signed a new executive order last week temporarily blocking travel to the U.S. from countries he said pose a high terrorism risk. The new order bars travel to the U.S. for 90 days from six predominantly Muslim countries — Sudan, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia and Yemen according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The new list excludes Iraq, which was included on the original list of countries announced in January.
In Asia, data showed travelers had a more nuanced response to their plans to visit the U.S. in light of the first travel ban — even as leaders in the region expressed concerns over the order.
According to numbers compiled by travel fare aggregation website Kayak, fewer travelers in Australia, China, Indonesia and Singapore were searching for U.S.-bound flights between Feb. 1 and Mar. 13.
In Australia, the year-on-year search volume for round-trip flights for U.S. destinations in that period fell 18 percent; China saw a decline of 27 percent, Indonesia — a Muslim-majority country — saw a drop of 19 percent and Singapore volume fell 14 percent.
