November 21, 2025
The World Media Group brought together a panel of business journalists at the City Nation Place conference in London to discuss the global economic shifts that are shaping trade, tourism and investment for cities and nations. CNP Founder & Director Clare Dewhirst chaired an insightful discussion with Sally Bundock, Journalist & Presenter, BBC News, Anna Cooban, Business Economics Reporter, CNN and Eleanor Pringle, Senior Reporter, Economics & Markets, Fortune. Here are some of the key takeouts.
- Economic volatility is changing consumer behaviour – people haven’t stopped spending, they’re spending differently
- Trump’s tariffs have backfired – Chinese exports have surged in markets outside the US
- The K-shaped economy intensifies – higher earners spend freely on premium products whilst lower-income households cut back significantly
- Political instability drives tourism decline – Canadian visits to the US are down $10bn, Western European visits are down 17%
- AI is reshaping the skills landscape but jobs requiring human connection and in-person presence will survive
- Stability becomes premium – businesses need predictable policies to plan investments and are looking beyond volatile markets.
Volatility defines the current economic climate
The overarching theme of 2025 has been economic volatility, particularly coming out of the United States. Whilst Wall Street has enjoyed a strong year, this volatility has created significant uncertainty for both investors and consumers.
According to Fortune’s Eleanor Pringle, “There’s a sentiment that some US consumers feel they’re in a recession, even though we are seeing GDP traffic at about 3.8%.” This sentiment gap reveals a deeper truth about consumer behaviour: people haven’t stopped spending, but they’ve fundamentally altered how they spend, reallocating their resources in response to economic pressures. They are trading down in grocery shopping, buying in bulk rather than dining out and making different travel choices.
“It might be a question of people travelling to different areas,” Pringle said. “Are they staying in the US as opposed to coming to Europe? What are they doing when they come here? Are they shopping or eating as much? Are they staying with family as opposed to a hotel?” This behavioural change extends to investors, who are increasingly focused on hedging strategies and diversification to protect against currency fluctuations and market volatility.
The impact of Trump’s tariffs
President Trump’s tariff policies have dominated economic discussions, but their effects have proven far from predictable. Chinese exports have surged in markets outside the US. “If Trump thought that tariffs were going to diminish China’s influence in the world, its trading prowess, I think he’s not made the right bet there,” said CNN’s Anna Cooban. Trade flows haven’t stopped; they’ve simply been rerouted, creating new challenges for European markets now facing competition from cheaper Chinese goods.
BBC News’s Sally Bundock said the impact on some small and medium-sized businesses in the US has been particularly severe. Those importing goods from Vietnam, China or Cambodia have found themselves struggling with tariffs. However, business owners report that manufacturing in the United States, the aim of these policies, simply isn’t feasible. Company bosses have told Bundock, “You’ll never replicate what we use in terms of supply chain in China, in Malaysia, in Vietnam. It’s about the skills, it’s about the labour, it’s about so many things and it’s just not going to happen,” Bundock explained.
The K-shaped economy
Economic recovery and prosperity are increasingly bifurcated. Higher-income consumers continue spending freely on premium products, whilst lower-income households cut back significantly. As Cooban explained, “We’ve got lots of consumers who are feeling very flush so they’re spending more and more. Coca Cola, for instance, is having to cut prices on their lower end products, while people are spending quite a lot on premium offerings like Smart Water.” Restaurant chains such as Chipotle have noted that their younger, lower-income customer base are cutting back.
This economic polarisation has been exacerbated by tariffs, which raise prices at the point of sale, adding “insult to injury” for consumers already struggling with cost pressures, Cooban said.
Tourism patterns reflect political climate
The perception of political instability in the United States has materially impacted international travel. “It’s really reduced people travelling to the US,” said Bundock. “Travel by Canadians, in particular, has dropped significantly. That’s going to impact the US by $10 billion in losses for international travel this year.” She said Western Europeans have reduced their US travel by 17%, with the number of overall overseas visitors is down 11% compared to last year. This has serious implications for the US hospitality and tourism sectors, which are vital components of the economy.
AI: reshaping the skills landscape
Artificial intelligence is penetrating sectors previously thought immune to automation. From news presenters to actors, AI avatars are demonstrating capabilities that challenge assumptions about which jobs require human qualities. Bundock referenced Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia. “When he was asked about AI taking away people’s jobs he said, ‘AI will not replace your job. Somebody using AI will replace your job.’”
According to Cooban, the skills that remain valuable are those that computers cannot replicate. “If I think about journalism, it is literally going to places, speaking to people, developing those relationships with sources. I imagine in a few years, the kind of journalism that will remain untouched by AI is investigative journalism, feature-led journalism, those situations where you literally have to be in those places.”
The same applies to care work and jobs that rely on a human connection. Coding, on the other hand, long considered a secure career path, now faces significant disruption from AI.
The migration of talent
High visa costs and restrictive immigration policies are reshaping global talent flows. The US H-1B visa for highly skilled workers now costs $100,000, the same visa programme that brought Elon Musk and Sundar Pichai to America. “It’s interesting how countries are positioning themselves to gain from that,” said Bundock. “For example, Canada has relaxed some of its immigration rules. China launched a whole new visa programme called K-visa in October, allowing a STEM-skilled person to enter China without job sponsorship, establish themselves and start working.”
Pringle shared the story of a former OpenAI engineer who relocated from Silicon Valley to Stockholm: “She was looking at the politics and some of the policies that were coming out of the US, and she decided to move to Sweden. They wanted to raise their daughter in a place that felt safer to them.”
Pringle, who regularly talks with the Canadian immigration authorities, said they reported their phones “ringing off the hook” after a disastrous debate between Trump and Biden, with enquiries from highly skilled Americans. “It wasn’t people wanting to flee and panicking. It was very highly skilled individuals, some of them with families, that felt there were just opportunities for them elsewhere.”
Small countries: stay different
According to Pringle, “The real opportunities for smaller countries lie in what makes them not like America.” She noted that when the President of Montenegro was asked about the economic trajectory of his country recently, his immediate response was “openness.”
The success of Visit Copenhagen’s “CopenPay” initiative demonstrates this perfectly. Bundock explained why it succeeded in getting media coverage in an area that’s oversaturated. “It was a story that was positive. It was positive action leading to rewards, as opposed to a tourism story in Europe which is all about, we’re taxing you, there’s too many of you in our city, it’s over-tourism.”
The initiative wasn’t necessarily novel, “When you look into what other places across Europe are doing in terms of eco-friendly travel ideas, there’s loads out there,” Bundock noted. “I just think they packaged it up extremely well and communicated it really well and consequently grabbed attention.”
Stability: the new premium
In Cooban’s conversations with businesses, one theme emerges repeatedly: the premium placed on stability. “Companies can’t make investments; they can’t plan if they don’t know how much their products are going to cost on the shelves in America,” she said. Small and medium-sized enterprises, in particular, are looking beyond volatile markets towards regions offering more predictable, forward-looking policies.
This shift may see nations and cities that can credibly offer political stability, policy consistency and openness finding themselves at a significant advantage in attracting both investment and talent.
The media’s balancing act
The panel acknowledged the media’s challenging position in covering economic uncertainty. As Bundock explained: “In the media, I think we’re accused all the time of talking up a recession. It’s difficult, because if the news flow is a negative news flow, we do have to tell you what the news is, we can’t sugarcoat it.”
Bundock referenced a British business owner with a large presence in the Middle East, who noted that the atmosphere in the UK is “so downbeat’ and “doom and gloom” compared to elsewhere. This cultural approach, exemplified by early government messaging about fiscal “black holes,” contrasts sharply with President Trump’s relentlessly positive framing of deals and achievements.
Looking forward
The reconfiguration of global trade relationships continues at pace, with the EU-Latin America trade deal, 25 years in the making, accelerating possibly because of complications in the EU-US relationship.
For cities and nations seeking to position themselves successfully, it’s clear that authenticity matters more than imitation, openness creates opportunity and stability has become a premium offering in an increasingly volatile world. Those who can communicate their distinctive value propositions clearly, as Copenhagen did with CopenPay, whilst offering the security that businesses and talent increasingly seek, will be best positioned to thrive in this new landscape.