Canada’s U.S. Tourism Boycott Continues: July Air Arrivals Down 26%
by Bruce Parkinson
Fowler says people are so much more than the governments that happen to represent them.
There’s no end in sight to the Canadian travel boycott of the United States. For the seventh consecutive month, July saw steep declines in Canadians crossing the U.S. border by car or plane.
New data from Statistics Canada revealed that the number of Canadians taking road trips into the U.S dropped by 37% last month compared to July 2024, following a 33% drop in June. More significant for Canada’s retail travel industry, there was also a 26% decline in air travellers from Canada year-over-year.
Travel from the U.S. to Canada is also down, though to a much lesser extent, with 7% fewer Americans travelling to Canada by car in July compared to last year and a slight increase (0.7%) of U.S. citizens flying to Canada last month.
Prior to the July numbers, in the first six months of 2025, Canadian travel to the U.S. was down 24% overall. Last year, Canadian tourists vacationing in the U.S. spent $20.5 billion. Canadian tourists make up about a quarter of all foreign travellers who come to the United States.
It doesn’t take a lot of math skill to understand that the numbers add up to multi-billion dollar losses for the U.S. tourism industry.
Cities in border states where tourism is highly dependent on Canadian visitors are suffering the most, including Seattle, Portland, Cleveland, Buffalo and Minneapolis. At least 20 city markets saw more than 10% fewer Canadian tourists from January through June, according to Tourism Economics.
That company attributes the decline in U.S. inbound arrivals to “the apparent negative consequence of a mix of Trump administration policies and statements that have shifted sentiment and raised concerns among many potential travellers.”
For Canadians, major factors include adversarial trade negotiations, Trump’s frequent comments that Canada should become “the 51st state” and immigration and border security measures that are causing fear among travellers.
It is estimated by the U.S. Travel Association that every 1% drop in international visitor spending, the U.S. loses $1.8 billion in export revenue.
