European countries are sharpening travel advice vs, fewer Dutch people on vacation

Tourists who travel to the United States are increasingly encountering extremely strict border controls, sometimes even with detention as a result. Some European countries have tightened the travel advice to the US. In the Netherlands, the travel advice is still unchanged, but the number of bookings to the US has fallen sharply in recent months, sees travel branch association ANVR.

The decrease in the number of holiday trips to the US is visible since the end of last year, says ANVR director Frank Radstake. In January the number of bookings to the US was 20 percent lower than in the same month a year earlier. “The figures from February are not there yet, but we expect that much fewer people have booked a trip to the US in that month.”

Radstake calls the high course of the dollar as a possible explanation, but does not think that is the whole story. “We don’t ask people why they don’t book to the US, but in a general sense it is true that travelers do not like uncertainty. If it is uncertain whether you enter the country, it will not help with selling a trip.”

That uncertainty is not unjustified. In recent weeks, for example, some German tourists were held at the American border. One of them is Lucas Sielaff. He flew with his American fiancé from Mexico to Las Vegas, where he was fascinated and locked up in a detention center in San Diego. Allegedly because he had not complied with the maximum of ninety days of his tourist visa.

Sielaff was stuck for sixteen days. “I was completely confused. You are angry, you are sad. You don’t know when you are allowed to get out of it again. It is hard to explain how that feels,” Sielaff told AP news agency.

Another German tourist would have been detained for six weeks in January, one of which is in an isolation cell.

This week, the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs adjusted the travel advice to the US with this warning: “Neither a valid ESTA authorization, nor a valid American visa gives the right to access the United States. The final decision on entry is made by the American border office. Previous convictions of the residence or even a might of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the target of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the goal of the purpose, even a mild end of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose of the goal of the purpose, about the goal of the target of the purpose, which can be sent to the purpose of the residence. deportation or detention. “

Denmark and Finland have also tightened the travel advice for the US. They specifically warn non-binary and transgender people because the Trump government acknowledges two genera: male and female. Danes and Finns who belong to this group is advised to contact the American embassy for a trip to the US.

The Netherlands has not yet adjusted the travel advice. When asked, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it has not yet received any requests for help from Dutch people with problems at the American border. The ministry has not adjusted the next passage on the website: “Are you an LGBTIQ+ person? And do you want to travel to the US? The laws and customs in this country opposite LGBTIQ+ people are comparable to those of the Netherlands.”