6.8% is not "devastating". Especially when no figures showing variability over the last decade are included to see if such a drop is just random.
This article then extrapolates an 80% drop in 7 banned countries into an 80% drop on the entire sector to reach a conclusion of "billions of dollars" and "hundreds of thousands of workers".
Or in other words this is one of those legendary "fake news" articles.
Sigh.
At least it included the agent of its own debunking within it.
International tourism to the US is worth about $220 billion a year, with strong year-over-year growth every year since the recession ended.
A 6.8% drop does indeed translate to billions of dollars, which can indeed be assumed to translate into hundreds of thousands of workers.
No, a 6.8% drop over the course of a few weeks is not "just random". Statisticians know how to control for things like seasonality and can normally predict expected numbers very precisely, barring some external factor -- like the President of the United States sending a clear message that foreigners are not welcome.
The same reason someone in finance reported Bitcoin "plunged" last week on a <2% downward movement that corrected within 24 hours. It's opinion, and it's biased.
This hurts us when foreign carriers realize they can't fill planes and affordable international routes start to disappear. Do we really think American or united will step up to fill these routes?
This article then extrapolates an 80% drop in 7 banned countries into an 80% drop on the entire sector to reach a conclusion of "billions of dollars" and "hundreds of thousands of workers".
Or in other words this is one of those legendary "fake news" articles.
Sigh.
At least it included the agent of its own debunking within it.