Normally tourism accounts for close to 10 percent of U.S. GDP, and that makes it a critical pillar of the U.S. economy.  We witnessed an enormous downturn during the early days of the COVID pandemic, but that was just temporary.  Now we are witnessing a similar downturn, but this time we don't have a pandemic to blame.  Needless to say, the overall economy is steadily moving in the wrong direction, and that is certainly affecting tourism.  But as you will see below, there are other factors that are very much within our control that are driving tourists away.

When I claim that the U.S. is experiencing a "tourism industry apocalypse", I am not exaggerating at all.

This summer, many of the country's top tourist destinations were so empty that they resembled something out of "a dystopian novel"…

Imagine walking into what was once America's most vibrant tourist destinations and hearing nothing but the whisper of wind through empty corridors. This isn't a scene from a dystopian novel — it's the stark reality of US tourism in 2025.

The summer that was supposed to be bustling with laughter, excitement, and packed attractions has turned into a ghost town of economic uncertainty. Take Florida, once the entertainment paradise of America, where over 15,000 Walt Disney World employees now face the terrifying prospect of reduced hours or complete layoffs — right in the middle of peak tourist season.

In the past, I have written about how a vacation to Disney World has become so ridiculously expensive that it is now out of reach for most middle class families.

But that doesn't fully explain why international visitors to Florida fell by 38 percent in just one year…

The numbers are brutal. International visitors to Florida have plummeted by a staggering 38% in just twelve months. Hotel bookings from Orlando to Miami have nosedived by 27%, creating what experts are calling a "post-pandemic crisis without a pandemic".

But this isn't just about empty hotels and quiet theme parks. It's about the human stories behind these statistics. Workers who built careers around tourism are now facing an uncertain future. The problem runs deeper than just fewer tourists — it's about systemic vulnerabilities in tourism-dependent economies.