Caribbean Travel Advisory Changes, US Tourism Slump and More: Top Destination News From January

by Lacey Pfalz
Last updated: 8:00 AM ET, Fri January 30, 2026

During the first month of 2025, we at TravelPulse have covered a lot of new surrounding destinations, from how the Winter Olympics are inspiring travelers to visit mountain and ski destinations to all the latest entry requirements and travel advisory changes you need to travel well.

Check out our curated list of the top destination news you should know from January, and be sure to click the links within the story to read more.

Table of Contents

Travel Advisories, Entry Requirements and More

The news you need to know about destinations is here: new entry requirements, travel advisories changes and government proposals that could impact travel itself—or your personal ability to engage with it as usual.

First off, new entry requirements. New U.K. entry rules begin this February, so travelers should note that they are now required to fill out the Electronic Travel Authorization (ETA) prior to boarding their flight to the U.K. Travelers are also required to pay a fee of 16 British pounds.

Here at home, Trump’s expanded travel ban is now in effect for travelers from more countries. Travelers from Burkina Faso, Laos, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone, South Sudan and Syria will find it harder to visit the United States—or might not be able to visit at all.

Additionally, a new bill floating around in the Senate and proposed by Republicans might end dual-citizenship for Americans, forcing them to one day choose between United States citizenship and their secondary citizenship. The bill has not been approved, but if it is, it will impact millions of Americans with dual citizenship.

The U.S. State Department raised the travel advisory level for Grenada, moving it from the lowest level of concern to a Level 2: Exercise Increased Caution status, due to crime. Meanwhile, Jamaica was downgraded from a Level 3 to a Level 2 for the second time in eight months.

Lastly, Amsterdam is mulling over a new plan to ban ocean cruise ships from porting in the city forever. The new plan would take until 2035 to reduce and eliminate cruise visits entirely, but is an option for the city which has taken a strong stance against overtourism since the pandemic ended.

US Destination News

Hawaii Unveils New Global Tourism Campaign

January welcomed new reports and an exciting new tourism campaign for Hawai’i.

Hawaii’s newest global campaign, “Hawai’i Stays With You,” began on January 4 and focuses on how the state can provide high-value, transformational travel experiences.

Beyond this new campaign, we also reported on some startling tourism numbers for the country overall. Data from the National Travel and Tourism Office found that international visitation numbers during the last September, October and November continued a concerning downward trend, with each month’s visitation totals dropping at 3-7.7 percent from the same month in 2024. Visitor totals from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean all dropped during this period.

Later data about December also followed this trend, with a 2.9 percent drop in non-U.S. citizen visitor arrivals. Total air passenger travel to Canada dropped the most, at nearly 12 percent from December, 2024.

2025: Rear-View Focus

Canoeing in Florida's Lower Wekiva River Preserve State Park.

In January, we covered some fascinating year-end facts and figures surrounding destinations as they analyzed 2025’s major trends and data.

Florida announced year-over-year growth. While the vast majority of travelers remain domestic travelers from other states, international visitation grew over 3 percent last year, with arrivals from Latin American countries seeing strong growth.

Yet Florida might be an outlier within the United States, according to the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics, which reported that the travel industry within the U.S. lost $6.1 billion in tourism dollars during the 43-day government shutdown that began in October and broke the record for the longest in U.S. history—as many destinations already faced declining international tourism.

Puerto Rico is celebrating its own tourism growth: 2025 marked the fifth consecutive year of arrivals growth, with its major international airport welcoming over 6.8 million visitors last year, an increase of three percent. Around 1.8 million cruise passengers visited the island, an eight percent increase.

Looking Ahead to 2026

adobe stock, mongolia, mongolia attractions, hunting

As we look ahead to the rest of the year, we at TravelPulse have compiled quite a few exciting anniversaries, milestones and destinations that should be top-of-mind for travelers and those within the industry.

First, we have a story detailing several major anniversaries and milestones—including America250. While it’s the most important for us here at home, there’s also so much more to celebrate this year, so read the full story here.

As we move into the future, it’s also important to recognize the destinations in the U.S. that are leading the way towards a more sustainable future, including Jekyll Island, Georgia and Sonoma County, California. Curious to read the full list?

Lastly, we believe some destinations are just ready to explode in popularity as major tourist destinations soon—check out our curated list of the eight emerging destinations we expect to be on the top of many travelers’ bucket lists this year.

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