The reported sharp drop in Canadians travelling to the U.S. this summer has been the case for Black Ball Ferry’s Victoria to Port Angeles passenger service, with fewer Canadians onboard contributing to an overall loss in travellers this summer. 

Wednesday’s preliminary data by Statistics Canada show the number of Canadians travelling to the U.S. dropped again last month, marking the seventh consecutive month in declining U.S. travel by Canadians. 

Comparing August 2025 with August 2024, Statistics Canada reported a 25.4 per cent decline in Canadian-resident return flights from the U.S.

It also reported 33.9 per cent fewer automobile return trips from the U.S. by Canadian-residents in August 2025 compared to the same month last year. 

President of Black Ball Ferry, Ryan Burles, told CHEK News the loss in Canadians travelling to the U.S. matches what he experienced in terms of fewer Canadian passengers aboard the seasonal ferry service between Victoria, B.C. and Port Angeles, WA.

This season, from March to August, Burles says Black Ball Ferry saw an average monthly decline of 15 per cent fewer passengers on board, with Canadians making up the bulk of the declining passenger numbers (30 to 35 per cent).

“Generally we’re down about 15 per cent. Our Canadian travellers are about 30 per cent of our travel. We’re down about 30 to 35 per cent Canadians and maybe 0 or five per cent down on Americans,” says Burles.

After noticing the declining trend in March and April, the ferry line started to adapt its services.

“We started the four trips later than we normally do,” he says. 

In past years, during the second week of June, the service typically increased sailings from three to four trips daily.

“When we go to 6:10 in the morning, we didn’t start til June 27, before July 1 because we saw April, May, the pressure wasn’t there,” says Burles.

Travel impacts in Canada and Victoria

Like many industries, Canada’s tourism industry has been impacted by U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods leading to a ‘spend local’ approach. Travel was hit again by Canadians then having safety concerns about possible detainment in the U.S., and then again with Air Canada’s labour strike grounding flights in July, reaching a tentative deal in mid-August.

Noting a stronger year in 2024 and service being definitely slower this year, Burles says the decline has not led to layoffs, but the loss in funds, which were undisclosed, has impacted other aspects of Black Ball Ferry.

“We were going to be doing some dolphin work over in Port Angeles. We postponed that work where the boat moores up,” he says.

Stage two of dolphin work, or construction on the human-built marine structures where the boat is moored ,will now be postponed until next year, he says.

“It’s not in that bad shape that we couldn’t operate, but we’ve been having to replace some of the fenders and timbers over where the boat moores. We did stage one last year and we’ll have to wait a little bit to start stage two.”

The ferry service continues until Jan. 4, and with the fall crab festival, American Thanksgiving and Christmas shoppers still ahead, Burles hopes there’s still time to recoup some losses.

“Around Christmas it’s usually quite busy. A lot of people come up here to spend a night in the hotels,” he says.

“Could it be busier? I kind of think in a way, the Christmas time and American thanksgiving might stay pretty steady,” says Burles.

“Snowbirds-wise, October, November – don’t know if it will trend as strong. We certainly are kind of anticipating keeping it 15 per cent.”

How Black Ball Ferry has navigated previous economic downturns

Overall, he says they keep operations fairly lean, and as president since 2007, Burles has navigated his share of economic ebbs and flows  

“COVID was the real banger. 9/11 because it’s 9/11 today, initially it didn’t hurt our business but when Canada wanted to make it mandatory passports, our numbers dropped til people got them. The bank crisis in late 2008 and 2009 was also pretty bad,” he adds.

As for the current drop, he says the company will continue to focus on what it can control.

“Our focus is to make sure we try to be as good as service as we can. Take care of our people and keep aware of what’s going on and see if there’s anything we can do to increase our travels,” he says.

“Some macro things you can’t control so you just gotta do your best to watch your P’s and Q’s and don’t get too wrapped up in it.”

Domestic and foreign travellers slightly up in Victoria and Canada

The recent Statistics Canada data shows strong numbers in terms of Canadians travelling domestically, including visitors in Victoria this summer.

CEO of Destination Greater Victoria, Paul Nursey, told CHEK in an email “Domestic travel to Victoria has been strong this summer.”

In terms of foreign visitors, “American visitation to Greater Victoria is steady, if not slightly up, and we are seeing a small uptick in visitors from Europe/Australia,” said Nursey.

Comparing August 2025 with August 2024, Statistics Canada showed a slight increase in foreign travellers to Canada in its latest data.

“In August 2025, non-resident arrivals to Canada by air totalled 1.2 million, edging up 0.4 per cent from August 2024. This total comprised 589,700 arrivals by U.S. residents (-3.6 per cent ) and 609,700 arrivals by overseas residents (+4.6 per cent),” it states.

However, the portion of foreign travellers comprising U.S. residents declined last month compared to the same month last year.

“In August 2025, the number of arrivals to Canada by U.S. residents by air decreased 3.6 per cent from the same month in 2024, while arrivals by automobile decreased 4.5 per cent,” states Stats Can.

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