New travel numbers confirm that Canadians made fewer return trips from the United States last month compared to the same time last year, with a sharp decline in trips by car. Statistics Canada says the number of Canadians returning from the U.S. by car was down almost 32% compared to March 2024, the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Anger over President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation comments and the weak loonie are seen as key contributing factors helping drive down Canadian cross-border travel.
The agency says Canadian return trips by air from the U.S. were down 13.5% last month compared to March 2024.
Flight Centre Travel Group Canada spokeswoman Amra Durakovic has said of the drop-off in visits: “It definitely reflects the time right now, and the sentiment of Canadians.”
“There’s a lot of resentment, a lot of anger,” said Martin Firestone, president of Toronto-based insurance firm Travel Secure Inc., in a recent interview. “Even snowbird travellers are going to be treated like aliens,” he added, referring to stricter registration rules for Canadians who stay in the U.S. for more than 30 days. Those new rules take effect Friday.
Reports of foreigners being sent to detention or processing centres for more than seven days, including Canadian Jasmine Mooney as well as a pair of German tourists and a backpacker from Wales, have sent shivers north of the border, chilling some Canadians’ urge to head down south.
Last week, Canada updated its advisory to warn residents travelling to the U.S. they may face scrutiny from border guards and the possibility of detention if denied entry.
But Mike Niezgoda, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in New York state, said there is no cause for alarm.
“It’s business as usual here,” he said in an interview Thursday. “There’s no difference … As long as you’ve got your documents, you’re fine.”
Niezgoda suggested Canada’s currency may help explain the thinner cross-border traffic.
“My friends in Fort Erie, they’re going, ‘I literally can’t go to the mall because our dollar is just not that valuable at this point,'” he said.
The loonie has hovered around 70 cents US for the past few months. But it was in similar territory in December – before the tariff rhetoric ratcheted up – and Canadians took seven per cent more car trips year-over-year to the U.S. that month, StatCan data suggests.
Return trips from countries other than the U.S. increased about 9% year-over-year last month.
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