America Bet $30 Billion on World Cup Tourists. Europe Stayed Home and North Carolina Is Falling

Something shifted in 2025. The US tourism decline isn't just a statistic — it's showing up in empty hotel lobbies, quiet boardwalks, and cancelled flight bookings from Europe. European visits to the United States fell 7% in May alone. Denmark is down 43% from 2019. Norway cut trips by 41%. Sweden dropped 37%. The UK, Germany, and France are all down double digits. In 2025, the United States became the only country in the world to see a decline in international visitor spending. The only one. The FIFA World Cup was supposed to be the turnaround, a $30 billion injection into the US economy. But flight bookings from Europe to World Cup host cities are down 4% year over year. Hotels in those cities haven't reported the expected surge. If this trajectory holds, the US is staring at a $4 billion hole in visitor spending. Meanwhile, North Carolina once a top five most visited state in America is expected to drop off that list entirely. Officials blamed "economic headwinds." Their proposed solution to win back international travellers? Chickens. Actual chickens on an Airbnb property in Charlotte. This is what happens when the world's second largest tourism economy decides the international community isn't worth courting. 1.8 million fewer Europeans came to the United States in 2025 compared to 2019. The world noticed. And apparently, it booked elsewhere. I cover the Canada-US relationship, trade wars, and global geopolitics from a Canadian perspective because sometimes it takes someone from outside America to say what's actually happening. e-7124 (Foreign affairs) HOEKSTRA OUT PETITION https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/e... e-7319 (Foreign affairs) https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/e... GTL Community Photo Map https://google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1R... Exclusive Guard The Leaf Promo Code: GTL25 https://www.tri-art.ca/ https://shop.artnoise.ca/ North Carolina tourism rates expected to drop as visitor numbers decline    • North Carolina tourism rates expected to d...   European Visitors To U.S. Dropped 7% In May—As Tourism Industry Seeks World Cup Turnaround    • European Visitors To U.S. Dropped 7% In Ma...   How European Travel to the U.S. Has Changed Since 2019 https://www.visualcapitalist.com/cp/h... Proton Email Referral Link https://pr.tn/ref/4Z7GCXPE Guard The Leaf Social Links: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/guardtheleaf... YouTube:    / @guardtheleaf   Reddit:   / guardtheleaf   Hey.Cafe: https://hey.cafe/r/guardtheleaf Discord:   / discord   00:00 Intro 01:16 North Carolina's Tourism Decline 05:52 Europe Travel To The US Continues Its Decline 10:00 Europe Country By Country Numbers 13:40 GTL Community Photo