President Donald Trump’s tariff plans are poised to impact almost every aspect of the U.S. economy, including travel. This week, travel expert Peter Greenberg shared with Audacy how people should expect the tariffs to affect their travel plans.
“Here are some of the... travel-related products expected to jump in price, if the tariffs hold: your airline ticket cost, since so many spare parts for airplanes are made overseas,” he said. “Air tags for your bags, as well as your luggage, since so many popular U.S. brands are manufactured in China. Headphones as well as so many sneakers and jeans are made in Asia.”
Nerdwallet’s 2025 summer travel report, published in March, indicated that more than two in five Americans (44%) plan to take a vacation in summer 2025 that requires a flight or hotel stay. Overall, the Nerdwallet data showed that 117 million Americans were estimated to spend a total of more than $452 billion on flights and hotel stays this summer.
An April 10 report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that airline fares actually fell by 5.3% in March and declined 4% in February. Forbes reported on April 11 that “airline bookings took a nosedive in the days immediately following President Trump’s April 2 tariffs announcement, suggesting that the administration’s import taxes had a dramatic, instant impact on discretionary spending.”
This Monday, USA Today reported that the U.S. aviation industry was still reeling from the tariff announcements. It said that industry lobbyists are asking for exemptions to tariffs.
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Since he was inaugurated, Trump has made several announcements about implementing and then pausing tariffs. Reed Smith provides a tariff tracker to keep track of what tariffs have kicked in and what tariffs are paused. Last week, Audacy reported that public confidence in the way Trump has been handling the economy was slipping as his tariff plans caused issues.
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