As Canada grapples with U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war, many Canadian snowbirds are changing their plans of travelling south this winter, a new survey shows.
The Travel Health Insurance Association of Canada (THIA) on Friday released its 2025 Winter Smart Traveller Survey, which revealed a “ dramatic shift in Canadian travel trends for the upcoming 2025–26 winter season.”
The survey found most Canadians are going to be skipping U.S. travel this winter, with only 26 per cent saying they will head south this winter – a 37 per cent drop from last year.
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The pullback is sharpest among baby boomers, traditionally the snowbird generation, with only 10 per cent planning U.S. trips, the report said, noting that this is a 66 per cent decline compared with last year.
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“Gen Z and millennials are not avoiding the U.S. with the same ferocity as older Canadians are,” says Will McAleer, executive director at the THIA.
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Younger Canadians said they are more likely to travel to the U.S., with 44 per cent of Gen Z respondents saying they would do so.
However, even among Gen Z, the figure was down 18 per cent from last year.
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While 40 per cent cited political tensions with the U.S. among the reasons they are avoiding travelling south, the most cited reason (41 per cent) was the rising cost of travel.
The Trump administration’s border policies have also caused fear among international travellers to the U.S., some experts say.
“There is a somewhat anti-U.S. sentiment (among tourists). There’s also a certain fear because of the border security issues that the Trump administration has imposed,” Marion Joppe, professor emerita at the University of Guelph’s School of Hospitality, Food and Tourism Management, said.
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This comes as U.S. authorities said any foreign nationals, including Canadians, would have to register with the government in order to avoid penalties.
This has led to some “inconsistent experiences” at the border for Canadian travellers, the Canadian Snowbird Association said in a statement earlier this month.
“Despite recent claims from U.S. authorities that fingerprinting and photographing Canadian travellers, staying in the U.S. for 30 days or more, is part of a new policy, our members have reported inconsistent experiences at various land border crossings,” the group said.
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With the decline in travel to the U.S., Joppe expects a boost for domestic Canadian tourism this winter.
“We knew that domestic tourism would be increasing quite substantially and we’ve always said Canada is a wonderful country, incredibly diverse, but a lot of Canadians have never explored Canada,” she said.
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— with files from Global’s Touria Izri
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