WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – New York’s new tourism campaign to lure Canadians to the state could face an uphill battle with President Trump’s latest tariffs and his comment about changing the name of Lake Ontario to “Lake America.”
State launches campaign to attract Canadian visitors
The state is looking to let Canadians know they are welcome in New York as tariffs and retaliatory tariffs continue to sour U.S.-Canada relations.
The recently launched New York Loves Canada promotion, found at iloveny.com, offers deals across the state at hotels, amusement parks, restaurants and museums meant to bring Canadians to New York with savings.
Local tourism officials said they are glad for the state’s help.
“It’s a good promotion. Anything that the state can do to put out a welcome message to Canadians is a positive because we can tell that we’ve seen a loss of Canadian visitage over the last 18 months,” said Corey Fram, director of tourism for the Thousand Islands International Tourism Council.
“Locally, especially for organizations like ourself, really cross-border relationships in commerce and partnerships, it’s built into our core DNA. So we certainly like to support activities that foster and promote those relationships,” said Anthony Adamczyk, executive director of the Ogdensburg Bridge and Port Authority.
There are about 25 deals of varying amounts for Canadians on the website. More are still being added. Some deals run through December.
There are currently no deals up on the website from the tri-county region, but tourism officials say they have heard from businesses working on being included in the promotion.
Trump’s social media post on Lake Ontario
New York Loves Canada may have lost some traction Tuesday after a Truth Social post from the president.
It reads, “The United States is giving serious consideration to changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America in that we don’t expect to do much business with Ontario any longer.”
It’s the latest comment that may disappoint Canadians, and has disappointed the Thousand Islands Tourism Council, which wonders how many Canadians may ignore the New York Loves Canada campaign because of it.
“I don’t want to give a whole lot of oxygen to this kind of nonsense. That really chips away at the momentum a campaign like that could have,” Fram said.
Outcome of campaign remains uncertain
It remains to be seen how well the promotion does. North Country and state officials are hoping Canadians will still enjoy what New York has to offer.
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