Countries update U.S. travel advisories in response to Trump policies

Several countries have updated their travel advisories for the United States under the Trump administration, warning of strictly enforced entry policies and the risk of detention at U.S. border points and advising transgender and nonbinary travelers about the categorizations of sex outlined by an executive order.

Reports of aggressive questioning, detentions and denials of admission at ports of entry have sparked angst among U.S.-bound travelers and could tarnish the United States’ image abroad, some experts say.

Canada is reminding citizens to register visits of longer than 30 days, while the United Kingdom has cautioned that U.S. authorities “set and enforce entry rules strictly” and that “you may be liable to arrest or detention if you break the rules.”

Germany and Denmark have also advised travelers whose sex on their passport does not match that assigned at birth to contact the U.S. Embassy before travel.

Finland’s advisory goes further, warning that in such a situation, “US authorities may deny entry” to travelers. The Finnish government also specifically notes President Donald Trump’s executive order that the United States now recognizes only two genders, male and female, which has been criticized by some experts for scientific inaccuracy.

Such cautionary measures follow several incidents at U.S. border points, including one, reported by Canadian media, in which a Canadian woman was detained for nearly two weeks - a situation that made her feel as if she “had been kidnapped,” she wrote in the Guardian. Several German nationals, one of them a green cardholder, were also detained for weeks in the United States, according to German media.

Germany’s Federal Foreign Office said in an email that it is “taking the recent incidents very seriously” and has updated its guidance accordingly.

David Beirman, a senior lecturer at the University of Technology Sydney who specializes in tourism, said: “As a general rule, government travel advisories are an influential element in the destination choice for international travel.”

Oscar Vorobjovas-Pinta, a senior lecturer in tourism and society at the University of Tasmania in Australia, wrote in an email that he suspects “as more and more countries update their advisories, we will see the negative sentiment toward tourism in the U.S. grow.”

“Destination branding is shaped as much by policy as by marketing,” he said, noting that such advisories point to aspects of U.S. policy that “reinforce narratives of exclusion rather than openness.” Travelers from European nations, “particularly in this political climate, tend to be highly aware of sociopolitical developments when choosing travel destinations,” Vorobjovas-Pinta added.

The United States’ role on the global stage has shifted dramatically in recent weeks under Trump, who has upended foreign policy in Washington, turned the country away from many of its allies and talked openly of annexing Canada and Greenland.

A February report from the research firm Tourism Economics says that if the United States enters an expanded trade war scenario and implements sweeping tariffs on key trading partners, which Trump has threatened, inbound travel is projected to decline by 15.2 percent in comparison to baseline projections

A number of people in Canada have already canceled U.S. trips over Trump’s assertions that the country should become the 51st state, The Washington Post reported.

Travel to the U.S. could decline further. “It is a reality that advisories can shape public perception and discourse about the target country, indirectly influencing political relations,” said Diego R. Toubes, a professor at the University of Vigo in Spain who has studied how travel advisories can function as covert political sanctions.

Toubes said Germany’s update of its travel advice last week was “likely to have a negative impact on tourism from Germany and potentially other European countries” in the short and medium terms. “Overall, there may be a decline in confidence,” he said, as travelers “feel less secure about their ability to enter the U.S. smoothly, even with proper documentation.”

But Neil Carr, a professor who studies tourism and leisure at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said he is not so sure that U.S. travel could be quickly upended.

“People decide on traveling (or not) to destinations based on multiple pieces of information and perspectives,” he wrote in an email. “It takes time and effort to change the images people have of destinations.”

Advisories related to border policy enforcement and travelers’ sex could even have different effects for different tourists. “Is the image linked to the advisory … a positive or negative one?” Carr asked. “That very much depends on the perspective of those viewing the image.”