Some Canadians hitting pause on U.S. trips due to tariff threats and weak loonie

Roughly 140,000 people a day are expected to pass through Toronto's Pearson airport during the busiest days of March Break, but some Canadians who were planning to travel to the U.S. have changed their plans.

Passenger bookings from airline and travel companies show Canadians are cancelling their trips to the U.S. in droves.

Ontario travellers interviewed on Thursday say no longer want to cross the border because they're angered by the on-again, off-again U.S. tariffs and because the Canadian dollar remains relatively weak against the greenback.

According to The Canadian Press, travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group Canada says leisure bookings to American cities dropped 40 per cent in February from the same month in 2024. One in five customers cancelled their trips to the U.S. over the past three months, the report said.

Amy and Matthew Gleiser, residents of Paris, Ont., had planned to go to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina with their children for March Break. The trip was supposed to last 10 days and the hotel was booked in August. The couple cancelled the trip in February and booked a family March Break trip to Mexico instead.

"With all of the tariff threats and this constant 'Canada is a 51st state' — which we hate — we just decided that we really didn't feel in good conscience that we could go down to the United States and spend money and support an economy in a country that really is out to hurt us as Canadians right now," Gleiser said.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods and a 10 per cent levy on energy. On Wednesday, he announced a month-long reprieve for the auto sector. On Thursday, he postponed 25 per cent tariffs on many Canadian goods.

Gleiser said it was disappointing to change travel plans but she said it was the right thing for her family to do. Communities across Canada will be hurt by the tariffs, she added.

"It feels unsettling, and a little bit, we feel hurt as Canadians. We just feel really taken aback that our economy is under attack by the United States for no real reason except that Donald Trump has decided to do that," she said.

"And that's really all we can do is choose where to spend our money and what to spend our money on. For an average Canadian family like ours, that's the only thing we can do to fight back."

'For me, it has been building,' Toronto traveller says

Lisa Charters, a tennis fan in Toronto, said in an interview that she cancelled a trip to Palm Springs, where she was going to watch the BNB Paribas Open, also known as the Indian Wells Open. She decided to cancel the trip mostly due to the weak loonie, but also due to tariffs and anti-Canada rhetoric from Trump.

Her trip was booked in September, but she's decided to go instead to the National Bank Open in Toronto in August.

"For me, it has been building," Charters said. "This is a really big deal. I can't even imagine that Canada would be part of the United States. We are a completely different country," Charters said.

'Canadians aren't stopping travel,' expert says

Flight Centre spokeswoman Amra Durakovic said Canadians are choosing to go to such places as Mexico, Aruba and St. Lucia, and countries where the dollar is still strong, including Japan and Australia.

Durakovic said they are also planning "fly and drive" trips in Canada, where they fly to a Canadian destination, then rent a car to take a road trip.

"Expand your horizons. We're seeing this as an opportunity. Canadians aren't stopping travel. They're just looking to other destinations," she said.

Air Canada announced last month it would reduce flights by 10 per cent to Florida, Las Vegas and Arizona starting in March — usually go-to hot spots during spring break season. WestJet said in an email there has been a shift in bookings from the U.S. to other sun destinations such as Mexico and the Caribbean.

The number of U.S.-bound flights from budget carrier Flair Airlines is down 24 per cent year-over-year for March, according to aviation data firm Cirium. Air Transat flight figures fell 12 per cent, while Sunwing Airlines scrapped all its U.S. flights.

Sean Davidson, spokesperson for Toronto Pearson, said 1.31 million people will nevertheless be travelling through the airport during March Break. Close to 1,000 flights will take off and land a day at the airport on its busiest days, he said.

"It's going to be busy, but we're ready to welcome over a million people who are going to be travelling over this next week," Davidson said on Thursday.