Australian travel agents woke on 11 December to a wave of cancellations after the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency formally proposed that visitors under the Visa Waiver Program must hand over five years of social-media activity, email addresses, phone numbers and biometric data when lodging an ESTA.
The measure—pursuant to a Trump executive order aimed at denying entry to people deemed to hold “hostile attitudes” toward the United States—will undergo a 60-day comment period but is expected to take effect before the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Australian arrivals to the U.S. had already slipped to 45,408 in November, barely half pre-pandemic levels; agents now predict a further double-digit decline, with clients re-routing conferences and incentive trips to Canada and Japan.
For business-travel managers the change is a compliance headache. Staff itineraries will need longer lead times, and communications teams must vet corporate social-media output that could be mis-read by U.S. border officials. Multinationals are also reviewing data-privacy exposure, because employees would effectively be surrendering third-party content in colleagues’ tagged posts.
![Australians shun U.S. trips as new ESTA rules demand five-year social-media history]()
Tourism Economics estimates that every 10,000 fewer Australian visitors costs U.S. hospitality operators US$32 million in direct spend. Conversely, Australian carriers such as Qantas could benefit if capacity is redeployed toward higher-yield Asian and European routes.
Travelers searching for clarity amid the upheaval can lean on services like VisaHQ, which maintains an Australia-specific portal at https://www.visahq.com/australia/. The company offers step-by-step assistance with ESTA submissions, alternative visa applications and real-time alerts, helping both leisure passengers and corporate travel teams stay ahead of evolving U.S. entry rules.
Canberra has so far offered only muted criticism, saying the U.S. has the sovereign right to set entry conditions. Civil-liberties groups argue the Albanese government should lodge a formal protest, warning that intrusive data grabs set an alarming precedent other countries may follow.
The measure—pursuant to a Trump executive order aimed at denying entry to people deemed to hold “hostile attitudes” toward the United States—will undergo a 60-day comment period but is expected to take effect before the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Australian arrivals to the U.S. had already slipped to 45,408 in November, barely half pre-pandemic levels; agents now predict a further double-digit decline, with clients re-routing conferences and incentive trips to Canada and Japan.
For business-travel managers the change is a compliance headache. Staff itineraries will need longer lead times, and communications teams must vet corporate social-media output that could be mis-read by U.S. border officials. Multinationals are also reviewing data-privacy exposure, because employees would effectively be surrendering third-party content in colleagues’ tagged posts.
Tourism Economics estimates that every 10,000 fewer Australian visitors costs U.S. hospitality operators US$32 million in direct spend. Conversely, Australian carriers such as Qantas could benefit if capacity is redeployed toward higher-yield Asian and European routes.
Travelers searching for clarity amid the upheaval can lean on services like VisaHQ, which maintains an Australia-specific portal at https://www.visahq.com/australia/. The company offers step-by-step assistance with ESTA submissions, alternative visa applications and real-time alerts, helping both leisure passengers and corporate travel teams stay ahead of evolving U.S. entry rules.
Canberra has so far offered only muted criticism, saying the U.S. has the sovereign right to set entry conditions. Civil-liberties groups argue the Albanese government should lodge a formal protest, warning that intrusive data grabs set an alarming precedent other countries may follow.
