'Catastrophic': Canadian bookings for U.S. travel drop sharply

[OnlinePoker]

Source: CTV

Canadian travel to the United States has begun to drop as the North American trade war hits America’s tourism industry.

The number of Canadian residents returning from trips to the U.S. has dropped 6.4 per cent between December and January this year, according to the latest seasonally adjusted data. That’s not counting any trends that may have emerged following U.S. import tariffs activating in early March.

One industry monitor recently found that demand for Canada-U.S. flights has “collapsed,” with cross-border bookings down more than 70 per cent for this spring and summer.

“This sharp drop suggests that travellers are holding off on making reservations, likely due to ongoing uncertainty surrounding the broader trade dispute,” wrote John Grant, chief analyst for OAG Aviation Worldwide, in a Wednesday blog post.

Read more: https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/article/where-have-all-the-snowbirds-gone-canadians-cold-on-us-travel/

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The U.S. is going to lose billions of tourist dollars from this fiasco. Hotels here in BC are at a premium already from people doing staycations and U.S. tourists coming here because of the good exchange rate.

[Scrivener7]

1. Good. Who could blame them?

[AllaN01Bear]

9. nope and nope

[SunSeeker]

2. What foreign tourist in their right mind would come to the US right now and risk weeks of jail?

Canadians can go anywhere in the world and would be welcomed with open arms, unlike Americans.

[defacto7]

3. Don't forget people like me who plan to visit Canada

because it's a great place to visit and it supports Canadians.

[Ontheroad]

15. I'm not even comfortable crossing into canada

because I am not okay with customs demanding total access to my phone (and thus my passwords and bank info) on the return back in.

[defacto7]

18. So, don't bring a smart phone.

It's good to have a link to some reputable source if you make a blanket statement like this. Never heard of it. But if this is happening as a general rule and not as hearsay it would be nice to have some proof. That's how it's done on this site.

[Ontheroad]

22. Here's the info from customs and border patrol, the .gov site.

Last edited Sat Mar 29, 2025, 07:51 PM - Edit history (1)

In short: A US citizen doesn't have to provide the passcodes for the phone, but if they refuse - their phone can be confiscated. If you do unlock the phone, they can go through all your photos, copy whatever files they want, etc. I'm not interested in buying a second phone to enter Canada, and not interested in traveling without a phone in case of emergencies. (Edit: And definitely not interested in having all my bank info and passwords copied to a database the doge teens may demand access to, given how this administration handles even their own sensitive data.)

"If a traveler being admitted as a U.S. citizen does not present their device in a condition that allows for examination, the U.S. citizen traveler will not be denied entry into the United States based on CBP’s inability to complete an inspection of their device. However, as noted above, their device may be subject to exclusion, detention, or other appropriate action or disposition."

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/cbp-search-authority/border-search-electronic-devices

[defacto7]

24. Thanks for providing some clarification.

Last edited Sat Mar 29, 2025, 09:25 PM - Edit history (1)

You've got to do what works for you. But there's a lot of other stuff on that link that also puts it into perspective like:

In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, lless than 0.01 percent of arriving international travelers encountered by CBP at a port of entry had their electronic devices searched.

That's less than 1 in 10,000
On Edit: In 2024, there were 4200 advanced searches out of 420,000,000 passengers.

and there are two types of searches:

A basic search generally entails an officer reviewing the contents of the device manually without the assistance of any external equipment.

An advanced search is any search in which an officer connects external equipment to an electronic device not merely to gain access to the device, but to review, copy, and/or analyze its contents. Under CBP policy, advanced searches require reasonable suspicion of a violation of law enforced or administered by CBP or a national security concern and require the approval of a senior manager (at a Grade 14 level or higher, or a manager with comparable responsibilities) prior to conducting the search.

The border search will only include an examination of information that is resident upon the device at the time it is presented for inspection. CBP officers may not use the device to access information that is solely stored remotely.

This means no passwords involved except the phone itself, no bank info, no cloud access etc. They require you to disable the network so it can't access anything externally.

So, it's not a routine inspection. It's usually because there's a red flag of some kind like bad ID, or you lie about the contents of your car, you're wanted for something etc. And I already know they've been doing this for years. Nothing new here.

I replied to the OP because I want to support our Canadian friends and I'll continue to do so. Your original comment was too simple and had wrong assumptions. It needed to be clarified. Thanks for doing so because I wouldn't want people scared off when it's really nothing unusual.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

26. Trump wasn't president in 2024

How many immigrants were shipped off to Nicaraguan gulags in fiscal year 2024?

[defacto7]

28. Off topic. This is about supporting Canadians.

The data available is 2024 and 1st quarter 2025 which is the same statistically as all of 24'. The ugly acts against immigrants through deportation is deplorable, but I doubt it had anything to do with cell phones at the border. I also don't think it's reasonable to let the horrible acts of our present administration to affect our relationship with our allies through false information, intimidation and fear. I will have a great time visiting Canada and won't be deterred by false narrative.

Be well.

[defacto7]

31. I shouldn't have written that.

I get so pedantic sometimes it's sickening. Who am I to say what's on topic or not?
Anyway, crazy times breed crazy people.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

32. .

[ToxMarz]

4. Canadian residents returning from trips to the U.S. has dropped 6.4 per cent between December and January

Trump hadn't even be inaugurated at this time, let alone begun his one man wrecking ball agenda. I doubt this even begins to capture what is happening today.

[Teacher of the Year]

5. 3.3 million Canadians visited Florida last year. I wonder how many this year will bring?

This is a report put out by white-booted governor Ron Desantis.

I will find it a bit ironic and sweet that the numbers in this report will be used against trump.

But Florida is about to lose a whole lot of income....that's for sure.

I wonder how their spring break is going?

[Amaryllis]

6. Not just border dispute. People getting snatched off the street and disappeared. No longer safe here.

[ReRe]

7. In who's sane mind is Trumpism good for America?

They tell us all this is a good thing, yet it's all in the process of shutting our country down. WTF?
Two Americas: the sane and the insane!

[Bernardo de La Paz]

12. The impending downturn and clampdown have not penetrated maga consciousness though they worry a bit

They are worried a bit because all the libs are terrified. They are not worried about the clampdown because they are immune from it, ... for now. They are worried a bit about the economy because the stock market is down and there have been some attention-getting down days. But they are assured that tRump is working hard and will be good for the economy.

They live in a propaganda bubble. Many are actually pretty sane and good family providers / carers but have been deluded by a coordinated deluge of gaslighting.

Loss of government services will help them wake up.
A falling economy will help them wake up.

As they start to take on board those signals, then peaceful and specific mass action in all forms will help reality penetrate their comforting gaslit bubble.

Then mass action will help them turn against the regime.

[ReRe]

16. Yes, Bernardo, and they will come to appreciate

and never speak another word about the "woke" in our society. They will learn to thank their lucky stars that there ARE intelligent and
CARING People who will have their back 100 times sooner that a GD Republican! When these insanely cruel people in power reduce or abolish Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid and their family members perish because of it, that is the moment they will finally understand the error in their thinking. When their eyes will be opened. It's so sad that that is what it's going to take to WAKE them up to the fact that we are all in the same boat!

Sorry, Bernardo. You got me going there.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

21. No worries, it was a good rant! . . . . nt

[petert]

8. That is life

Good

[LetMyPeopleVote]

30. Welcome to DU

[Botany]

10. I guess "the magic Kingdom" where about 25% ..

... of the visitors to the one in Orlando are from foreign countries along the other tourist attractions in that area are gonna be hurting.

FAFO

[Montauk6]

11. What's the opposite of secession? Expulsion? Detachment? FORCED Secession?

[iemanja]

13. Trump doesn't care

Because he wants to destroy the economy. There is no other explanation for harassing tourists at the border.

[unweird]

14. Nashville Impacted

I’m flying outta here today and had heard that flights from Canada to Nashville were being cancelled. Nashvegas gonna pay for all that stupid red love.

[mn9driver]

17. Tiptoeing around the real reason

Canadians can see what happens if they have any sort of glitch at all with their passport or visa: ICE grabs you up, and nobody sees you again for, well nobody really knows.

Who in their right mind would want to take even a small chance of that?

[LisaL]

23. Yep.

So far among detained, there was a British girl backpacking through the US, a German man who was visiting his fiancée, a Canadian woman trying to enter through Mexico for a job in California. I am sure there are more we haven't yet heard about.
Who would want to come here from these countries after hearing that?

[Rebl2]

19. Can you

blame them

[Floyd R. Turbo]

20. My cousin in Ontario and his family canceled their annual Maui holiday and are going to Tulum, Mexico instead.

[Karma13612]

25. My husband is a British

Expat.

We live in NY-21, very close to Canada. We love visiting in the summer on day trips to bike their wonderful bike paths and have lunch in their local well kept river front towns like Cornwall and Kingston.
Due to more green card holders being put in detention returning to the states, we are worried he could be next. It might be unwarranted and hyperbolic, but these ICE and CBP are not known for being reasonable.
Our first vacation together 25 years ago was in Canada. We wanted to celebrate our 20th anniversary there, but COVID got in the way.

Now for our 25th he’s mucking it up again.

Well, we’ll have to come up with some affordable fun local stuff in the states.

[yardwork]

27. I don't blame them at all.

Also, many Canadian travel destinations are in red states and the travel industry tends to vote Republican. I'm not sorry that wealthy people in South Carolina and Florida are feeling a direct result of their poorly thought out votes for Trump.

[Lottie Dah]

29. In Cleveland

The Rock Hall of Fame is reporting that Canadian visits are already down 30% for the past 3 months.