Some Michigan tourism agencies are pulling back on Canadian marketing amidst trade war

As the number of Canadians heading stateside plummets due to the ongoing trade war, some American tourism agencies are making hard pivots to their marketing strategies.

Return trips by land to the U.S., and back, declined steeply in March by nearly 32 per cent from the same month last year, according to Statistics Canada.

Traverse City Tourism has paused its advertising in Canada after seeing a big drop in interest in its digital campaigns.

CEO and president Trevor Tkach says the decision was made because several key indicators were underperforming.

"We're being extremely vigilant and critical of our campaigns and making sure that the markets we are promoting have the highest potential for return," he said. 

Additionally, there were partners like Pure Michigan, according to Tkach, who also began pulling back from the Canadian market.

"It seemed like probably a prudent move to hit pause on the campaign for now."

Traverse City is in northern Michigan, about a four-hour drive from the border in Windsor, Ont. It's known for its dunes, waterfront, beaches, cherries and wineries.

Tkach says Canadian travellers have been a "very important component" to the overall Michigan travel economy, especially in places like Metro Detroit, with a "high dependency" on that market.

"Not to say we're giving up on Canada by any means. We can't wait to have our friends from the north come visit us again, but it's a challenging time right now and we're trying to be as conservative and prudent with our dollars as we can be."

Ahead of the recent trade war, Tkach pointed to the low loonie working against Canadian travellers crossing the border to visit.

And as a result, they've shifted more of their attention to American driveable markets.

"We're just trying to be as as thoughtful about our target market as possible to make sure that we can get the return for our tourism economy here in the region. We're being mindful about people's ability to travel right now and their budgets and whatnot."

Tkach says about 70 per cent of their business comes from within their own state of Michigan.

"We can always probably get more return from the market that we know than from markets that we haven't fully penetrated. That said, Michiganders tend to come for shorter periods of time and spend less money."

Are Americans still coming here?

Jason Toner says a third of visitors that normally come to Windsor-Essex are from the U.S., and so far they still seem interested in coming over despite the political tension and economic uncertainty.

"We're hoping that does continue and we're going to continue to focus some of our efforts on the U.S. side because it is an important demographic for us," said the vice president of marketing and communications for Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island (TWEPI).

He says their marketing in Michigan will rely heavily on the value proposition moving forward with the difference in the dollar.

According to Statistics Canada, there has been a decrease in Americans choosing to visit Canada. In March, car trips came in at roughly 770,400 — a decline of 10.6 per cent from the same month in 2024. This was the second consecutive month of a year-over-year decline.

Toner says they are shifting their marketing messaging because regardless of Americans coming here, many Canadians are scrapping plans to head to the U.S., and local tourism is trying to capitalize on it.

"We're expanding what we do in the province. And so you're going to see a lot more of like our value proposition."

According to Toner, hotels and restaurants are cheaper in the Windsor-area compared to other parts of the province. 

"We're going to use that type of positioning in other markets. And we focused really a three hour drive so that Toronto area south."