The United States has long been the top destination for Canadian tourists, with the US Travel Association reporting 20.4 million visits last year. This influx contributed approximately US$20.5 billion to the American economy and supported 140,000 jobs. However, that number is expected to see a sharp decline this year as Canadians are rethinking their travel plans.
For 25 years, Rosalie Cote and her parents vacationed every summer in the US state of Maine. This year, however, they are staying home, frustrated like many Canadians by Donald Trump’s threats of annexation and tariffs.
“We don’t want to support the United States. It’s a matter of principle,” Cote explained.
Romane Gauvreau, for instance, cancelled both her mountain biking trip to Vermont and a family vacation to Maine. “We don’t want to go to a place where democracy is in danger, where people suffer great injustices, and where people are being deported,” she told AFP.
These sentiments are not isolated. A recent survey by Abacus Data revealed that 56 percent of Canadians have either changed or cancelled their travel plans to the United States. Bookings to American destinations fell by 40 percent in February alone, compared to the same month last year, with 20 percent of pre-existing reservations being cancelled, according to travel agency Flight Centre Canada.
Canadians who typically spend their winters in warmer US states, known as “snowbirds,” are also reconsidering their plans. Andre Laurent, a retired civil servant who had spent half of each of the past 22 years in Florida, says he no longer feels welcome in the US. “I no longer felt welcomed and I even felt like I was betraying my country,” he said, adding that he had decided to sell his Florida home. Five of the six Canadians living in his gated Florida community also chose to leave the United States permanently.
In response to the growing discontent, former prime minister Justin Trudeau encouraged Canadians to consider vacationing closer to home as an act of patriotism. “Choose Canada” videos quickly spread on social media, promoting Canadian destinations such as the majestic Rocky Mountains in the west and Prince Edward Island, the inspiration for Lucy Maud Montgomery’s famous novel "Anne of Green Gables," in the east.
Travel agencies were quick to capitalize on this shift in sentiment. At Nuance du monde, they have stopped promoting trips to the United States. “We’re boycotting them in light of the current situation,” said company director Samy Hammadache, noting that this loss of tourism would have a significant impact on the US tourism sector.
Agencies are seeing a notable shift in Canadian bookings toward destinations in Europe, the Caribbean, Central America, and within Canada. Canadian airline Flair Airlines, for example, responded to the decline in demand for flights to the US by increasing flights to Mexico, Jamaica, and the Dominican Republic. “These decisions are based on market needs and demand,” said Kim Bowie, the airline’s director of communications.
Tourism professor Michel Archambault predicted that this trend would see Canadian “domestic tourism reach record levels this year.” He pointed to a Leger survey that found six out of ten Canadians plan to vacation within Canada, a rare occurrence.
The recent drop in the value of the Canadian dollar has also made US travel less affordable, further encouraging Canadians to look closer to home. For Cote, the shift is about standing up for her country: “We must spend money at home rather than with our neighbours who play dirty tricks on us.”
