S.D. tourism likely to face a double whammy as Trump’s tariffs reduce foreign visitation and raise costs of supplies
Out here in the Black Hills, as we’re gearing up for the annual arrival of our tourism season, the hospitality industry is girding itself for a couple of headwinds.
For one thing, as with tourist tourist destinations all over the country, the local trade is looking at a significant dropoff in visitors from outside the United States.
Considering that, statewide, overall tourism brought in $5 billion in 2024 and supports 58,000 jobs in South Dakota, you can see why people around here are sensitive to the news backdrop created by President Trump’s tariff initiatives, which look like they’ll have a negative effect on foreign tourism.
Goldman Sachs says that in a worst case scenario, loss of foreign visitation will cost the U.S. tourism industry $90 billion in 2025.
Early numbers for this year’s season are discouraging. Citing data collected from the International Trade Administration, The Guardian reports that the number of overseas visitors to the U.S. dropped by 11.6% last March compared to the previous year. USA Today last week echoed the same theme in a piece titled “Tourism is the next casualty in Trump’s trade war.”
There’s more of the same in story after story, both in the trade literature and the general news sources, and chances are that South Dakota’s tourism industry will feel the effect.
Meantime, my contacts in the Black Hills area’s tourism industry are telling me that they’re faced with another challenge, mainly created by Trump’s specific targeting of China in the trade war.
That would be the possibility of shortages of the products used by the hospitality trade, which are, for the most part, produced in China.
I’m talking about soap, shampoo, body lotion, air conditioners, tv sets, towels, linens, light fixtures and room furnishings. As we close in on the end of Trump’s 90-day moratorium (sometime this July, right in the middle of the tourist season) before the skyrocketing tariffs he’s imposing on China come into effect, lodging establishments are bracing themselves.
No doubt recent news stories about the looming possibility of empty shelves created by the falloff of Chinese shipments to the U.S. are having their effect on buyers dependent on China for their supplies.
On top of that, the conflicting and confusing reports on the size of those tariffs and whether or not talks about them have or have not been occuring are complicating plans for businesses that depend on Chinese products.
I don’t know what the game plan is in this make-it-up-as-you-go-along tariff standoff with China, but communication and consistency certainly aren’t a part of it.
John Tsitrian is a businessman and writer from the Black Hills. He was a weekly columnist for the Rapid City Journal for 20 years. His articles and commentary have also appeared in The Los Angeles Times, The Denver Post and The Omaha World-Herald. Tsitrian served in the Marines for three years (1966-69), including a 13-month tour of duty as a radioman in Vietnam. Republish with permission.
Photo: public domain, wikimedia commons
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