There’s been much noise about Canadians boycotting travel to the United States, but it’s too early to tell how serious the threat is to the American tourism industry and if it will have any lasting impact.
Angered by wide-ranging tariffs that the new American administration is threatening to levy against every sector of their economy, many ordinary Canadians are vowing to fight back with their wallets against all things American and among the expenses they would cut is travel to their southern neighbour.
In a recent CBC article, Rudy Buttignol, the president of the Canadian Association of Retired Persons said he’s heard from a wide spectrum of his organization’s 250,000 members about vacationing in the U.S.
“Anecdotally, I would say more than half the people that I’ve spoken to … have said they were definitely reconsidering their travel plans,” he told the CBC.
Stephen Fine, president of Snowbird Advisor, told the CBC that the snowbird season is coming to an end soon, so it’s premature to predict what their mood will be next winter.
“There’s definitely a negative sentiment amongst a number of snowbirds at this point, but I’m not sure what that is going to translate to for next season,” Fine said.
Amra Durakovic, Head of Communications at Flight Centre Travel Group Canada couldn’t provide hard figures about whether Canadians are shifting their travel plans away from America, but did say that as Canada’s largest bricks-and-mortar travel retailer they have observed “a softening in cross-border travel bookings among Canadians, a pattern affecting both leisure and corporate segments of our business.”
While the uncertainties stemming from the U.S. administration’s tariff announcements are one factor prompting more cautious travel behaviour, Durakovic added that a weakening Canadian dollar is also making travel to America less attractive to Canadians.
The U.S. Travel Association, a national, non-profit organization that advocates for the travel industry in the United States, notes that Canada is the top source of international visitors to the U.S., with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs.
“A 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses,” the association warned in a recent statement.
Among the hardest hit would be the five states that Canadians visit the most, Florida, California, Nevada, New York and Texas.
Florida governor Ron DeSantis shrugged off the boycott threats at a press conference last week, saying the state’s warm weather would keep Canadians coming back.
“They always say people are going to stop going to Florida. … Every time they announce a boycott we end up setting a new tourism record,” said DeSantis.
Of course, Florida doesn’t have a monopoly on warm weather. Flight Centre Canada’s Durakovic said that while Canadians’ desire for travel remains strong, “many are prioritizing destinations that offer value and more reliable travel plans, allowing travellers to make the most of their journeys.”
The company says it has seen increased bookings among Canadians to sun destinations like Oaxaca and Guanajuato in Mexico, Cartagena and Medellín in Colombia and Lisbon and Porto in Portugal. Other destinations seeing an uptick include Turkey, Vietnam and Eastern European nations such as Romania, Poland and Hungary.
Will the Canadian boycott on U.S. travel have a measurable impact in the long run? The way America’s new federal government is cutting staff, the real question is, will anyone be left to report tourism numbers in the future?
