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.
You have to remember also that the number of Canadians who went down there was far higher than the number of any other amount of people, maybe minus Mexicans not sure. So even if it was 1% or whatever it was from the EU that is still a lot more hurt from Canada than it is from the EU. The number of people in that one percent coming from the EU is a lot smaller than the one percent coming from Canada the 78% or whatever it is of Canadians still going down there are either people on business trips, dumb dumbs who think this trade war will be over any time soon, or dumb dumbs who do not value Canada.