Canadians, angered by U.S. tariffs and Trump administration talk of turning their country into a 51st state, really do appear to be boycotting the United States. Ticket sales for travel in summer, a crucial season for the industry, are down 21 percent compared with last year.
The decline in Canadian travelers, who make up roughly a quarter of all foreign visitors, is enough by itself to threaten tourism-oriented businesses in Florida, New York, Maine and other popular destinations.
Sometimes, however, the link between politics and personal travel decisions appears unmistakable. Since President Trump stepped up his hostility toward Canada, border crossings have plummeted.
Unlike air travel, land travel often isn’t planned months in advance, so changes reflect a change in sentiment more quickly. Crossings from Canada dropped sharply after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to “choose Canadian products and services rather than American ones” on Feb. 1.
Traffic at two of the busiest crossings, near Niagara Falls, fell 42 percent in March compared with 2024. And traffic at a busy crossing point between Vancouver and Seattle fell 48 percent.
Most, if not all of the Ontario school boards have canceled their planned trips to the US. They certainly don’t want to take a chance that one of their darker-skinned or foreign exchange students could be whisked off to El Salvador instead of arriving at Disney World.
What trips were they taking to the States? I don’t think I ever had a field trip out of country, though it’s been a while since I graduated. I think the furthest we ever went was Quebec City.
My kids were in their high school band, and every year they would have a trip to New York City, Washington DC, or Disneyworld in Florida.
I never had anything like that, but then again I was in high school in the mid 1970s.
Same with MB. Trips are on “pause”. PD funding for conferences in the states is likely next (it happened last time during Trump 1.0 and the bathroom laws)