Chinatown sees tourism slowdown, blames Trump travel ban

A man walks across Grant Street in Chinatown during a rainstorm in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. A man walks across Grant Street in Chinatown during a rainstorm in San Francisco, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 8, 2017. Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Buy photo Photo: Gabrielle Lurie / The Chronicle Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Chinatown sees tourism slowdown, blames Trump travel ban 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

Foot traffic is down, tours feel light, stores aren’t moving as much Chinatown kitsch as they usually do, business owners said Friday.

The question is why, and no one seems to be sure.

At a news conference in the Clarion Music Performing Arts Center, members of several small-business advocacy groups blamed President Trump’s embattled travel ban for a slowdown that some business owners say has amounted to anywhere from 10 to 50 percent less spending than usual for this time of year.

But the San Francisco Travel Association, which tracks tourism and issues annual forecasts on how many visitors the city can expect, anticipates an increase in tourism of nearly 2 percent in 2017.

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Visitors are expected to spend as much as $9.22 billion in the city, nearly 3 percent more than they did in 2016, according to the association’s most recent forecast, from March.

“Tourism is not down really,” said Laurie Armstrong, the association’s director of media relations for the U.S. and Canada. “It seems to be doing just fine.”

That’s of little comfort to business owners like Cynthia Yee, who runs Chinatown Ghost Tours and said the usual foot traffic associated with spring break travelers and summer tourists has been notably absent in Chinatown all year.

“My phone used to be busy all the time, especially with summer coming,” Yee said. “No one calls me anymore. We used to have three or four guides out every weekend. Now, it’s just me.”

Although Trump’s ban, designed to keep travelers from six Muslim-majority countries out of the U.S. over fears of terrorism, has been stalled for months by federal court proceedings, San Francisco Council of District Merchants Associations President Henry Karnilowicz said the damage has largely been done.

“It’s not just these six countries we’re talking about, it’s everyone else who thinks, ‘America isn’t looking so friendly right now; I’d rather go to Canada or somewhere else instead,’” Karnilowicz said.

Searches for flights to the U.S. were down about 18 percent as of February of this year, shortly after the travel ban was enacted, according to travel agency Hopper, which looked at data from 122 countries.

Yet the travel association expects 2.9 million international visitors this year (with more than 526,000 from China). That’s a slight bump of a third of a percent over last year’s tourism numbers.

Other factors could, of course, be at play for Chinatown, such as online shopping and an overall slowdown in retail spending.

In an effort to entice tourists and shoppers back to the famed San Francisco neighborhood, the Chinatown Merchants Association will hold its first-ever sidewalk sale on May 20.

Marissa Lang is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mlang@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Marissa_Jae