Travel agents say Canadians are cancelling U.S. trips amid tariff threats
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened punishing tariffs, mused about making Canada the 51st state
Canadian travel agents say they're seeing more people cancel their U.S. trips and go vacationing elsewhere amid an upswing in patriotism due to U.S. tariff threats.
U.S. President Donald Trump has threatened to impose crushing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian imports, as well as mused about using "economic force" to absorb Canada as a 51st state.
On Monday, he signed orders imposing 25 per cent tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from Canada and elsewhere, set to begin March 12. Broader tariffs on the majority of other Canadian goods are on pause for at least 30 days, until the beginning of March.
The threats of a trade war have led to an upswing in Canadian pride, with sports fans booing the U.S. national anthem and polls suggesting Canadian patriotism is on the rise.
Now, Canadian travel agents say they're seeing more customers cancel their U.S. trips and book vacations elsewhere, in what could prove to be an impactful way of voting with their wallets.
"We certainly saw it during the first Trump presidency, with Canadians mostly anecdotally saying that they were planning on avoiding the U.S.," said McKenzie McMillan, a travel consultant with the Vancouver-based Travel Group.
"But this time definitely feels different," he added. "This has been a much more tangible reaction from clients who are actually outright cancelling trips and rearranging their plans. This is something that we haven't seen before to this extent."
McMillan says that in many U.S. destinations — like Palm Springs, Orlando and Phoenix — Canada was the number one source of international travellers.
"A lot of those Sun Belt destinations are going to be hit really hard by Canadians choosing to either stay home or go elsewhere," he said.
According to the U.S. Travel Association, which advocates for the American travel industry, a 10 per cent dip in inbound travel from Canada could translate to $2.1 billion US in lost spending and jeopardize 14,000 American jobs.
"Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States, with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs," the association said in a statement.
Both B.C. Premier David Eby and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have urged Canadians to rethink their U.S. travel plans in light of the tariff threats.
Amra Durakovic from Flight Centre says if travel does slow down between the U.S. and Canada, it will impact many different industries.
"Canadians are taking a stand in solidarity," she said. "They're showing Americans — or rather, the U.S. administration — where they're going to spend their tourism dollars."
Durakovic said her company was seeing an uptick in people heading to Canada's East Coast, Mexico, Portugal and Antigua in recent weeks.
But both she and McMillan say it might be too early to get exact figures on how many people are cancelling their U.S. trips.
Neither Statistics Canada nor the U.S. Bureau of Transportation have yet released the last two weeks of travel data between the two countries.
But Durakovic says for many of her customers, the sentiment of "anywhere but the U.S." is strong, and she urged people thinking of rebooking their trip to think about paying for gratuities in advance to avoid currency fluctuations.
With files from Michelle Ghoussoub