Tourist Arrivals to U.S. Drop Again – Now Just 80% of 2019 Levels
U.S. government data for June shows continued weakness in the number of international visitors to the U.S. amid broader economic and geopolitical turbulence.
Visits to the U.S. from overseas fell 3.4% year-over-year, according to preliminary figures released Wednesday by the National Travel and Tourism Office.
Roughly half of the top 20 countries generating tourists from overseas saw year-over-year declines in visitation. The UK, the top generator (besides Canada and Mexico), saw a 1.1% decl
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Hedge fund tycoon Hosking says rival Telegraph bid "ready to go"
The hedge fund founder enlisted to back a bid for The Daily Telegraph says the offer is "ready to go" if a takeover of the broadsheet title involving sovereign Gulf money runs into further regulatory problems. Sky News has learnt that Jeremy Hosking, the prominent City figure who co-founded Marathon Asset Management, is pledging to inject £100m of his own money into the newspaper group if the self-styled 'British bid' of which he is part is successful. Mr Hosking, who now runs Hosking Partners, has been working with Dovid Efune, the owner of the New York Sun, in an effort to gain control of the Telegraph for several months. Money latest: They have been thwarted, though, by an agreement reached with RedBird Capital Partners, the US-based investment firm, to buy the titles for £500m following a two-year battle which has plunged the Telegraph into a protracted state of limbo. RedBird's bid includes tens of millions of pounds of funding from IMI, a state-backed Abu Dhabi vehicle, which cleared a key hurdle last week when the House of Lords voted against a 'fatal motion' which would have blocked the sovereign investment. The outcome of the vote was not without fierce debate, with 155 peers supporting the ban. IMI is controlled by Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the vice-president of the United Arab Emirates and ultimate owner of Manchester City Football Club. Speaking through Mr Efune, Mr Hosking said in a statement on Wednesday morning: "We have been following the latest developments closely and with the best outcome for all Telegraph stakeholders front of mind. "We understand from the Lords debate last week that there is now a legal requirement for the government to formally investigate all the foreign government ties that may result in influence over the current preferred buyer. "Should the buyer be deemed unsuitable, our "British Bid" is ready to go. "We believe our current capitalization is more than adequate to replace the controlling shareholder's portion of the deal. "My own personal commitment is £100m in equity capital." Further details of the financing lined up by Mr Efune's consortium remain unclear, including the level of debt attached to his prospective offer. The RedBird-led acquisition of the Telegraph remains subject to investigations by both Ofcom and the Competition and Markets Authority, which are likely to delay completion of the deal into next year. Sky News previously revealed that Sir Leonard Blavatnik, owner of the DAZN sports streaming platform, and Daily Mail proprietor Lord Rothermere were preparing to buy minority stakes as part of the RedBird transaction. Gerry Cardinale, the RedBird executive, who has spearheaded the latest iteration of its acquisition, has described the firm as "the right owner at the right time". RedBird said in May that it was "in discussions with select UK-based minority investors with print media expertise and strong commitment to upholding the editorial values of the Telegraph". The Telegraph titles' parent company was forced into insolvency proceedings in 2023 by Lloyds Banking Group, which ran out of patience with the Barclay family, their long-standing owner. RedBird IMI, a joint venture between the two firms, paid £600m several months later to acquire a call option that was intended to convert into ownership of the Telegraph newspapers and The Spectator magazine. That objective was thwarted by a change in media ownership laws - which banned any form of foreign state ownership. Some peers argued last week that a 15% threshold was too high and that the legislation to permit it was dangerously ambiguous because it could allow for more than one state investor to aggregate their holdings in British newspapers. A further statutory instrument will need to be approved in order to address this issue. The Spectator, which had also been part of the same group, was sold last year for £100m to Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund billionaire, who has installed Lord Gove, the former cabinet minister, as its editor.
Skift
5 hours ago
- Skift
MakeMyTrip Expands International Listings with Premier Inn's 900+ European Hotels
As direct competition in India is increasing and suppliers are cutting middlemen, MakeMyTrip is moving to international markets to increase supply and distinguish itself. Online travel agency MakeMyTrip has partnered with UK-based hotel chain Premier Inn. Under the partnership, more than 900 Premier Inn properties across the UK, Germany and Ireland have been added to MakeMyTrip's international hotel portfolio. For Premier Inn, the partnership with MakeMyTrip will help increase awareness of the brand in India and neighboring countries. MakeMyTrip's decision was driven by the UK being one of the most preferred destinations for Indian travelers, said Rajesh Magow, co-founder and group CEO of MakeMyTrip. The partnership is a key part of the OTA's strategy to capitalize on India's outbound surge. International Strategy: This is MakeMyTrip's latest effort to expand its international hotel supply. The company has been using a direct contracting strategy to add more hotels to its portfolio, with a focus on high-demand outbound destinations. In a statement, the company said in the past year, it has added more than 2,000 directly contracted hotels across 50 cities in 20 countries. 'These 50 cities collectively account for more than half of India's outbound travel,' MakeMyTrip's statement read. 'Over the past twelve months, we have pursued a focused strategy to deepen our international accommodation offerings across key hubs, particularly in long haul markets such as the UK, Europe, and the U.S.,' said Magow. �
Forbes
14 hours ago
- Forbes
Governments Worldwide Race To Lock In AI Leadership
The Global Race for AI dominance heats up In the past three months, the global AI race went into overdrive. Washington, Brussels, Beijing, Tokyo, Seoul, and even India's Gujarat state rolled out ambitious plans for building AI capacity. These documents aren't the run of the mill, vague strategy memos. They are statements about plans to lead the next era of technology. These announcements all carry a similar urgency. They direct billions toward infrastructure, talent, and data systems, while defining which countries and companies will get access to these assets, as well as which will not. The AI Action plans all serve to direct government efforts and funding in a more direct manner than seen before, and these plans all aim to shake up the rapidly growing and shifting AI markets. The United States AI Action Plan: Deregulation and a Security Lens President Donald Trump left little to interpretation when he unveiled 'Winning the AI Race: America's AI Action Plan' on July 23. 'To secure our future, we must harness the full power of American innovation,' he said. His remarks and the text of the plan made clear that China was the country on his mind. The US plan structured its AI Action plan to move quickly. It calls for removing regulatory hurdles that might slow AI research or deployment and discourages state-level restrictions. Federal dollars will flow into chip plants, data centers, and AI-focused workforce training. Agencies are also being told to buy AI systems that align with the administration's definition of 'objective truth' and avoid what it calls 'ideological bias.' National security is also central to the US AI Action Plan. The government will tighten export controls on advanced AI hardware and software while creating 'secure AI export packages' for allies. Secretary of State Marco Rubio summed it up: 'America sets the technological gold standard worldwide, and the world continues to run on American technology.' Europe: Focused on Fixing an Infrastructure Deficit The European Union's AI Continent Action Plan, released before the US' action plan on April 9, is all about accelerating European AI efforts, if not catching up. Europe lags the US and China in cloud and data center capacity, and the plan directly addresses that. Brussels will fund massive 'AI factories' and 'AI Gigafactories' through public-private partnerships. Think CERN, but for compute power. The plan also promises to build out a unified market for data through new European Data Spaces. These shared datasets are meant to fuel AI model training without violating the bloc's strict data protection rules. 'Europe must become a global leader in AI innovation,' European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. Japan: A Lighter Touch Japan takes a different approach with a recent law aiming to achieve the same goals as the AI Action Plans. With the AI Promotion Act, which passed May 28, the goal is to make the country the 'most AI-friendly' place to invest and build. Instead of strict penalties, the law sets out broad principles and imposes specific obligations only on a handful of 'high-risk' uses. A new AI Strategy Headquarters, led by the Prime Minister, will coordinate the effort. That centralized approach is designed to make decisions and allocate resources quickly. South Korea: Focusing on Trust as the Foundation South Korea's Strategy to Realize Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (May 13) focuses on ethics and user confidence. High-risk systems must notify users when they're in use, and the government will conduct social impact assessments to track how AI changes daily life. Officials say they want citizens to feel they can trust the technology from the ground up. China: Domestic Expansion, Global Outreach China launched two AI-focused initiatives in quick succession. The Digital China 2025 plan, released May 16, aims to spread AI through every sector of the economy and raise the country's computing power. And just earlier this week at the World AI Conference & High-Level Meeting on Global AI Governance, Beijing presented an "action plan for global AI governance" as well as a new international AI governance body headquartered in Shanghai. Premier Li Qiang argued that the AI race can't be controlled by a handful of nations and companies. He promised to share open-source tools and breakthroughs with developing countries, particularly in the Global South, a clear counter to Washington's export restrictions. India's Gujarat State: Local but Ambitious And more at a local level, India's Gujarat state launched an Action Plan for Implementation of Artificial Intelligence that was approved this week, showing how AI competition is extending beyond the national level. The state plans to train 250,000 people in AI, launch 'AI factories' in smaller cities, and use the technology to modernize public services. What's Fueling this Latest Wave? There are a number of factors pushing governmental agencies to launch AI action plans and initiatives. The first is one of constrained power and compute resources. Every plan emphasizes compute power. Europe is building Gigafactories, China has a 300 EFLOPS target, and the US is fast-tracking data center permits. The second driver is that of talent shortages. The need for higher skilled AI workers both inside and outside the government is becoming critical. The US, EU, and India all say they need more AI-skilled workers. Training programs are growing and being launched everywhere. Another key driver is the realization that an AI strategy at the national level means increased national security. Governments are coming to the increasing realization that AI is a strategic asset. Some are tightening export controls, while others are fast-tracking sovereign AI models and building alliances through open-source sharing. What's missing is a shared approach to regulation. The EU has the AI Act, a dense set of rules set to take effect next year. Japan is going in the opposite direction, with minimal restrictions. The US has so far leaned on deregulation. That lack of consistency creates headaches for companies trying to operate in multiple regions. Will These Plans Bring the Market Together or Split It Apart? These new roadmaps raise a bigger question. Will governments find enough common ground to keep the AI market connected? Or will they carve it into rival blocs? Some see reasons for optimism. Countries are all worried about the same things: model safety, data security, and misuse. That could lead to at least basic shared standards, especially around how models are tested and hardened against attacks. Existing forums like the G7's Hiroshima AI Process have tried to lay that groundwork. But the split may already be happening. Washington is intent on protecting its technological edge through export bans. Beijing is using open-source promises and a proposed global AI body to build influence among developing countries. These two philosophies don't line up. If they harden, the world could end up with incompatible technical stacks and regulatory frameworks. For AI developers, that scenario would make life difficult. Building for multiple regimes means rewriting software, retraining models, and navigating a maze of compliance rules. A single set of standards would be easier, but the political realities don't point that way. The AI Race Continues to Heat Up The AI race keeps accelerating and heating up. The next phase will decide how connected or divided the global market becomes. Governments aren't waiting to see how AI technology evolves. They're laying down rules and infrastructure now, each trying to secure an advantage. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put it bluntly: 'The global race for AI isn't slowing down. [The] Time to act is now.'
