09 JUN 2017: Is a Trump effect real news? Will tourists from around the world be snubbing the United States and plan their vacations elsewhere to protest President Donald Trump’s obsession with banning incoming travellers and stoking furnaces with coal, among other inexplicable policies? That was among the sticky questions put to a panel of experts at Best Western Hotel’s 2017 leisure travel summit in Toronto that I attended to get an overview of trends while planning cruises in Canada to celebrate its 150th birthday this year.
While it’s too soon to say, early returns suggest the Trump rush could be the real deal. Figures are only available through March, but inbound travel to Canada was up by nearly 13 percent in the first three months of 2017 compared to a year earlier, according to Charlotte Bell, president and CEO of Travel Industry Association of Canada.
Notably there was a 20 percent increase in visitors from Mexico and tourism from India, Japan and South Africa also jumped by double digits, The United States, of course, is the biggest source of tourism and the numbers were actually down a bit in March compared to a year ago. But March is never a big cross-border tourist month.