Football World Cup: Will US hostility trump its hospitality?

Scaring foreign football fans off will not help make a success of it

- ERIKA D. SMITH is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

Not long after Los Angeles (LA) was selected as one of 11 American cities to host next summer's FIFA World Cup, tourism officials started predicting the potential economic impact. Among the most optimistic? That the weeks-long tournament could pour almost $600 million into the local economy, mostly from international fans of football.

Pessimism has since taken over. At a time when the US should be preparing to roll out the proverbial welcome mat to the world, President Donald Trump's erratic immigration policies and draconian rhetoric are instead scaring tourists away.

Stories abound of travelers with visas in hand being denied entry at the border over minor infractions or, in some cases, being held for weeks before being allowed to return home.

The World Travel & Tourism Council, pointing to the Trump administration, recently projected that spending on international trips to the US would reach only $169 billion this year, down $12.5 billion compared to 2024 and well below the 2019 peak of $217 billion.

Travel from Canada is down for the third straight month. Numerous countries, including Germany, have issued travel advisories warning their citizens to strictly follow the United States' tighter rules for entry, or risk being detained.