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In a speech on Wednesday, President Donald Trump announced a blanket 10% tax on all foreign imports into the United States, which will take effect Saturday. He announced additional "reciprocal" tariffs on 60 countries as high as 49%, which will be implemented April 9. In his remarks, Trump explained that his goals include returning factory jobs to the U.S. and retaliating against countries he claimed have been taking advantage of the U.S. economy.

However, Trump's trade policy, imposed without Congressional approval through the 1977 International Emergency Powers Act, is expected to slow down the U.S. economy as consumers will be forced to pay more for cars, textiles and other goods, the Associated Press reports.

The stock markets have responded to this announcement, as CNBC reported, with the S&P 500 falling 3.4% — its worst day since September 2022 —and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 1,200 points, or more than 2%. The Nasdaq Composite declined 3.8%.

Foreign leaders have already issued initial responses, Time reported, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirming countermeasures are being prepared.

“We have always been ready to negotiate with the U.S., to remove any remaining barriers to Transatlantic trade,” von der Leyen said in a statement. “At the same time, we are prepared to respond … to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail.”

Many of the travel sector's public companies saw dips Thursday morning following the president's announcement. Seeking Alpha reported share prices of major U.S. airlines — including United Airlines, Delta Air Lines, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, JetBlue, Allegiant Travel Company and Frontier Group — were down between 5% and 6% at the start of trading Thursday.

Public hotel companies including c-corps and real estate investment trusts are also seeing declines, the New York Times reports. At press time, Marriott International saw a 7% dip, Hilton is down 5%, IHG Hotels & Resorts declined 4%, Host Hotels & Resorts fell 7% and Park Hotels & Resorts is down 10%.

Jimmy Merkel, CEO and co-founder of Rockbridge, told HNN's Dan Kubacki that he's sticking to a core hotel investment strategy even amid uncertainty in the market.

"The underlying demand has been pretty healthy. And now we are dealing with a little bit more unpredictability and the political environment with the new administration and managing that," Merkel said in a video interview. "There's definitely some headwinds being created, at least in the short term, around some of the policies and some of the posturing and positioning that this administration is doing."

A few months ago, Rockbridge acquired three Texas hotels with the Hotel ZaZa brand for $290 million. The hotels will be integrated into Rockbridge's Makeready portfolio, which includes more than a dozen independent, luxury-lifestyle hotels as well as restaurants, bars and coffee shops.

Regions in the U.S. Midwest and South have been hit hard by recent tornadoes, and ongoing storms have not given any relief to the areas affected. The New York Times reported tornado sightings overnight across Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas.

Many of these states are now experiencing heavy storms, which are expected to continue through the weekend. Tennessee has reported four deaths from the storms, and Kentucky, Arkansas and Missouri have reported multiple injuries.

Flight delays and cancellations affected many parts of the country beginning Wednesday, with more expected effects to travel to continue.

According to CoStar data from the week ending on March 29, the U.S. hotel industry reported increases across the key performance metrics. Overall occupancy was reportedly 65.1%, a gain of 4.4%. Average daily rate increased 2.5% to $161.65 and revenue per available room grew by 7% to $105.19.

St. Louis saw the biggest growth in the top 25 markets in the country. The Gateway City had occupancy increase 27% to 76.8%, ADR raise 15.8% to $138 and RevPAR jump 47% to $105.94.

Five markets saw a RevPAR decline, including New York City and Oahu. NYC's RevPAR declined 9% to $229.99 and Hawaii's most populated island saw a RevPAR drop of 5.4% to $217.74.

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