The weak Canadian dollar is one of the reasons people have held back on travel to the U.S.Rob Gurdebeke/The Canadian Press
Canadian travellers held strong to their boycott of travel to the United States right to the end of the summer, blowing a sizable hole in the U.S. tourism sector, the latest numbers from Statistics Canada show.
In August, the number of Canadian residents returning by vehicle from the U.S. plunged 33.9 per cent year-over-year to 1.9 million, while the number of residents returning by air fell 25.4 per cent to 423,000, the agency said.
Taken together across the peak summer travel period of June to August, Canadians made three million fewer trips to the U.S., a 33.1-per-cent year-over-year decline.
Based on the $695 that Canadians spent on average on trips to the U.S. during the second and third quarters of 2024, according to Statscan’s national travel survey, the boycott amounts to a $2.1-billion hit to the U.S. travel sector over the summer.
The Canadian travel backlash has hurt key U.S. tourism destinations, notably Las Vegas. The latest numbers for the city’s Harry Reid International Airport show 29.6 per cent fewer passengers arriving on Air Canada and WestJet in July compared with the same month last year.
During a news conference earlier this week, Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley pleaded with Canadian travellers to return: “I’m telling everybody in Canada, please come. We love you, we need you, we miss you.”
Canada has long been the largest source of international visitors to the U.S.
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A report by Tourism Economics last month found that total spending in the U.S. by visitors from all countries is expected to fall 4.2 per cent this year, resulting in an US$8.3-billion hit to the industry.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s rhetoric and policies aren’t the only reason Canadians may be staying home. The weak Canadian dollar has caused some people to hold back on travel to the U.S.
However, the loonie has strengthened from 69.5 US cents at the start of the year to an average of 72.5 US cents in August, yet that appears to have done nothing to entice Canadians to head south.
The boycott has cushioned Canada’s own tourism sector, which has suffered from an albeit smaller drop in U.S. visitors here.
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Over the summer months, 415,000 fewer U.S. residents entered Canada, a 5.6-per-cent year-over-year decline.
Even so, August continued a pattern in which U.S. visitors to Canada outnumbered Canadians travelling to the U.S.
Between June and August, 816,000 more U.S. residents visited Canada than vice versa; by comparison, during the summer of 2024, 1.8 million more Canadians visited the U.S. than Americans heading north.
The resilience of U.S. travellers to Canada, in conjunction with the number of Canadians opting to travel at home, has resulted in a rare bright spot for a Canadian economy suffering from Mr. Trump’s trade war.