New Brunswick tourism feels the love from Canadians boycotting the U.S.

Chris and Graziella Aerni have been welcoming guests to New Brunswick's Rossmount Inn for 24 years. 

Their 18-room hotel in Saint Andrews offers fine dining where guests often reserve their spots months in advance. And this year, at a time of growing friction with the United States, those bookings have been pouring in.  

Aerni, a Swiss-born chef, said  demand is already looking "very strong for the summer."

"From what I can see, unless something very, very drastic happens, it looks like New Brunswick could have a great summer season."

The increased bookings come at a time when many Canadians are vowing to spend their travel dollars at home as a tariff war with the United States heats up.

Nearly 500,000 fewer travellers crossed the land border from Canada into the U.S. in February compared to the same month last year, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

If that continues into the busy tourism season, it could turn into a hospitality operator's dream.

Joanne Bérubé-Gagné, senior executive adviser at the Tourism Industry Association of New Brunswick, was in Montreal for an RV show recently, with about 30,000 people in attendance, and she said the feedback was clear. 

"Everybody that came to our booth said, 'We're going east, we're going to New Brunswick, we want to visit you this year,'" she said. 

"The word around was, 'We cancelled our vacation to the U.S. and we're going to stay in Canada for a couple of years.'"

Accommodations are usually the first thing people book when they start planning their vacations, and this year it's happening earlier than ever, Bérubé-Gagné said.

"We already have some campgrounds telling us that they will be full before they even open. Usually that starts in April and May, but we've been getting calls since February.

"People are planning ahead and a lot of people are telling us the same thing — they're not going to the U.S. They cancelled their vacation to Old Orchard [Beach] and New Hampshire."

Suzanne Robichaud said she is seeing that impact first-hand as one of the owners of South Cove Camping and Golf in Shediac, a family business for more than 50 years.