Canadians angered by the steep tariffs imposed by the Trump administration have been pulling U.S.-made products from store shelves and adopting a “Buy Canadian” mindset, and the rancor over the tariffs could also have a major impact on the U.S. hospitality industry.
Flight Centre Travel Group Canada officials recently told reporters that leisure bookings to U.S. cities by Canadian travelers declined 40 percent year-over-year in Feb. 2025, with one in five customers of the travel agency canceling U.S. trips in the past three months.
Canadian travelers are making “choices to travel to destinations that align more with our values,” Flight Centre spokeswoman Amra Durakovic told the Toronto Star.
The economic warfare being waged by the U.S., along with Trump speculating about Canada becoming a U.S. state and disparaging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as a “governor,” has sparked a wave of defiant nationalism in Canada. Normally polite and respectful Canadians have even booed the U.S. national anthem at hockey games.
“This anti-Trump sentiment is playing a huge role here, where people are saying, ‘I’m not going to the U.S., I’m just not going to travel there based on what he’s doing to us in Canada,’” said Martin Firestone, President of Toronto-based insurance firm Travel Secure Inc. “That never existed before.”
In February, the U.S. Travel Association said that the tariffs could have a costly impact on the domestic travel industry.
“Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States, with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs,” according to the travel trade organization. “A 10 percent reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending, and 14,000 job losses.”
Florida, California, Nevada, New York and Texas, the top U.S. destinations for Canadian travelers, could be especially hard hit, the association said.
