{"id":332288,"date":"2026-08-28T23:32:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332288\/"},"modified":"2026-08-28T23:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T23:32:08","slug":"n-y-tourist-border-communities-work-to-combat-tensions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/332288\/","title":{"rendered":"N.Y. tourist border communities work to combat tensions"},"content":{"rendered":"

ELLICOTTVILLE, N.Y. \u2014 The quaint village of Ellicottville,<\/a> about 50 miles south of the Canadian border, is known for its ski slopes, restaurants and shops.<\/p>\n

But given the recent trade situation and President Donald Trump’s renaming of Lake Ontario to Lake America, border communities are heading into the upcoming seasons with more questions than answers.<\/p>\n

Harry Henderson lives in a suburb of Toronto, and for almost 40 years, he’s had a second home in Ellicottville, at HoliMont, a development which is about 45% Canadian.<\/p>\n

He says the ongoing tensions between the two nations has been hard to watch.<\/p>\n

“We have family who live in the U.S. as well. And having a property here, it’s made it more difficult for us because many Canadians won’t come down, won’t cross the border anymore,” said Henderson.<\/p>\n

Leaders with the Ellicottville Chamber of Commerce say they are gearing up for a number of events over the next several weeks.<\/p>\n

Canadian visitors make up a great deal of the local economy, especially during ski season, yet the low exchange rate has had an impact on spending.<\/p>\n

Barb Pump, the executive director of the Ellicottville Chamber of Commerce, says there has been a decline in the number of Canadians attending events, and is working to reassure merchants that Canadian visitors are welcome.<\/p>\n

“We want them to know that we still appreciate them coming down, and they can come down anytime and everyone here will welcome them with open arms,” said Pump.<\/p>\n

In New York state, travel from Canada dropped 21% in 2025, or 3.6 million visitors, according to the New York State Comptroller’s Office.<\/a> Canadian spending also took a big dip last year, falling 26%, or $480 million.<\/p>\n

Trey Clauss, owner of The City Garage, are already preparing for the upcoming winter season.<\/p>\n

He, too, says the low exchange rate is a top concern, more so than trade tensions, as to whether visitors will make the trip and spend as freely as they have in the past.<\/p>\n

“They might not end up making a big purchase while they’re in town. You can’t justify spending more money just because you’re trying to support a smaller community that you ski in,” said Clauss.<\/p>\n

Still, residents like Henderson are hopeful conditions will improve, and not permanently damage the relationship between the two countries.<\/p>\n

“It’s going to take some time, regardless of how the trade issues are resolved. It’s going to be a long journey to repair those relationships and some of them may never recover,” said Henderson.<\/p>\n

Earlier this month, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul extended a special invitation to Canadian travelers by announcing the launch of a “New York Loves Canada” promotion on the I Love New York website.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ELLICOTTVILLE, N.Y. \u2014 The quaint village of Ellicottville, about 50 miles south of the Canadian border, is known…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":332289,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[113,288,16799,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,87,200],"class_list":["post-332288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-buffalo","tag-business","tag-mark-goshgarian","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332288","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332288"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332288\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/332289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332288"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332288"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332288"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}