Anticipation turned to elation Monday as fully vaccinated Canadians visited loved ones, vacation properties, and popular American shopping haunts after the United States finally eased southbound travel restrictions along the world’s longest unmilitarized land border.

Shortly after midnight Sunday night, Customs and Border Protection agents began letting fully vaccinated vacationers, visitors, and day-trippers drive into the US for the first time since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020.

By 9 a.m. ET, passenger traffic delays at the busiest Canada-US crossings were mostly only a few minutes, although the wait at the Peace Bridge reached more than two hours shortly after the new rules took effect. The bridge typically handles about 2 million passenger vehicles from Fort Erie, Ont., yearly, many of them bound for Buffalo, NY’s shopping malls, sporting events, and nearby ski slopes. Volume dropped by more than 90% during the pandemic.

In the Alberta border town of Coutts, the delays got progressively longer through the morning; by midday, vehicles were waiting four hours to get across, according to the CBP’s wait-times website.

A three-hour mid-morning delay to get through the St-Bernard-de-Lacolle crossing in Quebec, which links Montreal with Champlain on the way to New York City, had largely cleared by midday.

But while snowbirds and others vaccinated travellers eagerly hightailed it into the US, others offered mix feelings over the event and signs that even more international leisure travel may be on the horizon.

Specifically, Canadian tourism operators worried that if Canadians start to stream south for vacations and shopping sprees, they aren’t spending their money on destinations here.

Chris Bloore, chief executive of the Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, says local visits to hot spots ranging from Niagara Region vineyards to the boutique hotels of Prince Edward County will undoubtedly decline after receiving a boost last summer.

“There is definitely going to be a reduction in some numbers, for sure. That’s absolutely inevitable,” he said. “But as we start to welcome international visitors now back to Canada, as we try and push for PCR testing, changes to protocols, we’re hoping to make sure that we’re looking further afield to people as well to try and bring them to us.”

Travel and tourism organizations are lobbying the federal government, which opened its border to Americans in August, to end the ongoing COVID-19 test requirement to enter the country. Currently, any Canadian returning home by land who wants to avoid quarantine needs to provide a recent molecular test that shows a negative result. Non-residents who test positive are turned away at the border.

At a cost of $150 to $300 per test, that can be a pricey proposition, particularly for families.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam said Friday that test rules for vaccinated travellers need to be re-examined, particularly for short trips.

“Unless Canada changes that regulation or that order of not requiring a PCR test to re-enter the country, I don’t think you’re going to see large volumes of people heading into the United States,” said Walt Judas, head of British Columbia’s tourism association. That holds true for both day trips and longer vacations, he said.

However, Vancouver Island and British Columbia’s Okanagan Valley will likely see a major drop in Canadian trailer and campervan drivers as snowbirds flock south.

“Small communities like Osoyoos managed to retain a lot of Canadians who camped in their RVs for the duration of the winter. So those folks will likely do as they’ve done in years previous and head into the US,” Judas said.

It’s not just the campgrounds that will feel the impact of fewer visitors.

“They’re all users of other venues and facilities and visit grocery stores and they eat in restaurants, some might even choose to stay in a hotel for a bit of a getaway that’s more localized,” he said.

But Tourism Industry Association of Canada CEO Beth Potter says a border that lets visitors filter through in both directions for non-essential travel is one more step on the path to pre-pandemic levels of activity.

“More and more Canadians have discovered that Canada has a lot to offer,” she said. “We hope to see that trend continue next summer. And at the same time, we would expect to see return of American visitors as well.”

One incentive for Ontarians to stay put is the province’s staycation tax credit. Premier Doug Ford’s government on Thursday rolled out a plan for the measure, which would give residents a 20% personal income tax credit for money spent in-province on leisure and accommodations in 2022. The credit ranges up to a maximum of $1,000 for an individual and $2,000 for a family, yielding a credit ceiling of $200 or $400 respectively.

But Monday was a day that was too long in coming, considering how long highly effective COVID-19 vaccines have been publicly available in both countries, according to open-border advocate Rep. Brian Higgins, a New York congressman who has been urging the White House for months to end the restrictions.

“Today marks the day that loved ones who have been separated for the past 19 months will finally be reunited. That is very, very significant,” he said, adding, “People don’t want to be constrained anymore. Remove the redundant testing. And let’s really celebrate this opening, so that we can realize the full potential of the United States and Canada getting back to its friendship, getting back to its binational relationship in an economic way, but also in a life quality way.”

But Higgins and others, including community leaders on the Canadian side, know the full effect won’t be apparent until Canada does away with requiring proof of a costly COVID-19 test in order to get back into the country.

Floyd Jorgenson, of Mervin, Sask., said he accompanied his parents on a flight to Phoenix to get them settled at their Arizona vacation property, but is now wondering whether he’ll be allowed back into Canada when he returns home Friday.

The clinic where he inquired about getting a PCR test said it would take upwards of 7-10 days to get the results, he said. “They said, ‘Well, we’re so backed up, it’s a week, week-and-a-half delayed before you get the results,”’ Jorgenson said. “And I go, ‘Well, that doesn’t really work very good for me.”’

He said he’ll keep trying, but in the end may have to plead his case with customs officials: “I won’t even have my results, so I’m not sure – but I know I have a ticket, so I’m getting on the plane.”

The Canada Border Services Agency issued a statement last week reminding would-be travellers that proof of a negative test, taken no more than 72 hours before travel, is required to re-enter Canada, along with proof of vaccination.

On Monday, a mobile testing truck was parked near the Peace Bridge in New York, promising results in 30 minutes for US$225 and next-day results for $160.

Nevertheless, US Travel Association president Roger Dow said, “After nearly two years of restrictions, Monday begins in earnest the return of international travel, when long-separated families and friends can safely reunite, travellers can explore this amazing country, and the US.”

It was, he said, a “monumental day” for the US. And most Canadians would agree.