Numerous nations have issued unofficial travel advisory warnings to deter citizens from traveling to the United States under Donald Trump. The tensions between the US and Canada have been particularly bad for tourism. Statistics Canada reported a 23% decline in trips via car from the US this February, marking the second consecutive monthly decline, while trips to the US by air declined 2.4%. March’s data shows that cross-border travel plummeted by 900,000 YoY, marking the worst year of tourism since the COVID pandemic.
US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) data found that 4,105,516 people traveled from Canada into the US this March, down from 4,970,360 visitors in 2024—a 17% decline. Now let’s just say that those 900,000 travelers traveled, say, in families of four, spending $2,500 on their trip. That is $562,500,000 tourism dollars lost in one month alone, and obviously, $2,500 is an extremely low estimate for what one would spend on vacation.
The US Travel Association stated that Canadians spent $20.5 billion in US last year while on holiday, which was believed to support 140,000 jobs in leisure and hospitality. Border towns have been hit the hardest, naturally.
Governor Gavin Newsom has launched a marketing campaign to attract Canadian tourism to California. “You know who’s trying to stir things up back in D.C., but don’t let that ruin your beach plans,” Newsom said. “Here in California, we’ve got plenty of sunshine and a whole lot of love for our neighbors up north.” Newsom is attempting to paint California as an independent state that is not controlled by Washington. Newsom is letting the world know that America is very much a divided nation where our own governors openly do not support the president and are attempting to override him at every step.
Ron deHarte, the mayor of Palm Springs, California, launched a “Palm Springs Loves Canada” campaign to attract tourism. “The Trump administration is sending messages that just don’t feel very American. This is not the way we treat our neighbors and we certainly don’t treat friends like this. It’s hurting people, and it’s causing harm. We understand that this hits close to home to everybody in Canada,” deHarte stated.
Newsom and others fail to see that their messaging is exactly why travelers do not want to visit America. No doubt, the comments regarding turning Canada into a US state deeply offended our northern neighbors. Yet, declining to travel to the US is based on fear-mongering coming from the media and politicians. Dozens of world leaders have issued warnings to their citizens, advising them not to travel to the United States for no valid reason. The checks and balances at the border have not changed for law-abiding individuals. The only difference a few people may encounter is validating their assigned legal gender on their identification.
There has been an ongoing message that it is outright dangerous to travel to the United States under Donald Trump. People genuinely believe that they will wind up imprisoned or in some detention camp since Trump is seen as modern-day Pol Pot, or Hitler, but are we not all exhausted of that headline yet?
