U.S. tourism faces $5.7B US loss as Canadians continue to stay home

Many Canadians continue to boycott travel to the United States, and the U.S. economy is paying the price. 

A U.S. Travel Association report forecasts a 3.2 per cent decline in international tourism spending in the country for 2025, a loss of $5.7 billion US compared to the previous year. 

The association largely attributes the loss to a decline in the number of Canadian visitors — a trend that has persisted since U.S. President Donald Trump returned to office in January, sparked a trade war with Canada and began referring to the country as the 51st state. 

In the latest data for September, the number of return trips among Canadians travelling to the U.S. dropped by 27 per cent for air travel, and by a jarring 35 per cent for land travel, compared with the same time last year.

Canadians traditionally make up the largest group of international tourists to the U.S., totalling 28 per cent of its 72.4 million visitors in 2024. 

Usha Haley, a professor of management at Wichita State University in Kansas, warns that the drop in tourism dollars threatens thousands of jobs. 

“The tourism sector is labour-intensive and it's a big employer in many states,” she said, adding that job losses could have a knock-on effect. 

For example, she said, “The reduced occupancy in hotels will impact labour demand and that'll impact tax collection, which potentially impacts municipal finances."

Last month, Trump said the Canadian tourism problem was “something that will get worked out. There's still great love between the two countries.”

However, since then, he has continued to foster contentious relations with Canada.

In response to an anti-tariff ad launched by the Ontario government, Trump broke off trade talks with Canada late last month. He also threatened to hit the country with more tariffs on top of the ones he imposed earlier this year. 

Trump has said the tariffs are necessary to remedy an expansive trade deficit with Canada. (The country exports more to the U.S. than it imports.)

However, America’s decline in international tourism has helped fuel a travel trade deficit, as more Americans are travelling abroad than international tourists are visiting the U.S.

The U.S. has historically enjoyed a travel trade surplus. But for 2025, the Travel Association forecasts a deficit of nearly $70 billion US.