Canadian travellers are still unhappy with President Donald Trump, and that’s affecting the 2026 outlook of visitors to the US from Canada.
In 2025, there was a noticeable travel chill from the US’s northern neighbor, following President Donald Trump’s quips about the “51st state” and the levying of hefty tariffs.
A January survey of more than 1,000 Canadian prospective travelers found that they remain hesitant to travel to the US and would rather support domestic tourism, according to Longwoods International, a tourism industry market research company.
According to Longwoods International, 55% of surveyed Canadian travelers report that they intend to travel to the US within the next 12 months, which remains mostly unchanged from 54% reported in October 2025. Among those who intend to make the trip, only 9% say they have already made bookings.
In 2025, 4 million fewer Canadian travelers visited the US than the previous year, marking a 22% drop, according to the US Commerce Department’s National Travel and Tourism Office.
Seventy-three percent of Canadian respondents to the latest survey, who said they changed their 2026 travel plans to avoid the US, cited economic policies and tariffs.
Other factors are also at work. More than 40% of respondents told Longwoods International that they strongly or somewhat disagree that the US is a place that values international travelers, welcomes travelers with diverse backgrounds, is a safe place to visit, and feels welcoming in general, and the number of Canadians who agree that the US feels safe to visit has been declining over the past year.
Popular destinations for Canadian snowbirds, such as southern California and Florida, have been trying to woo them back. But it appears that those attempts have fallen flat as Trump continues to threaten Canada with tariffs and recently threatened to delay the opening of a bridge Canada paid for.
In 2025, California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom began trying to convince Canadians with targeted video campaigns that California welcomes them. Recently, heart-shaped banners featuring the Canadian flag also popped up in Palm Springs, which, according to the Los Angeles Times, is feeling a chill this winter from fewer Canadian tourists.
“Sure, you-know-who is trying to stir things up back in DC, but don’t let that ruin your beach plans,” Newsom said in a campaign video. “California is the ultimate playground — over 2,000 miles from Washington and a world away in mindset.”
According to Visit California, the number of Canadian visitors to the state still fell by over 18% in 2025 compared to the year prior, slipping to 1.4 million. In 2024, Visit California showed that 1.7 million Canadians visited the state and spent around $3.7 billion.
Even Disney, the happiest place on earth, is feeling the impact as international travelers skip the US. In the Walt Disney Company’s first-quarter earnings report earlier in February, the company said it is facing “international visitation headwinds” at its US parks, including Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California.
Visit Florida lists Canada as the state’s top source of international visitors, with around 3.4 million travelers from Canada to the state in 2024. In 2025, the state saw a 15% year-over-year drop, according to Visit Florida, with only 2.9 million visitors from Canada.
Canadian airlines Air Transat and WestJet are also suspending all or some flights from Canada to the US this summer.
“We saw a notable decline in transborder travel demand throughout 2025,” Julia Kaiser, media relations advisor for WestJet, told Global News earlier in February. “As a result, we made timely decisions to modify our network to stay aligned with where Canadians want to go.”
The slowdown in trips to the US doesn’t mean that Canadians are no longer traveling. Longwoods International said that 45% of Canadian travelers who changed their plans for a US trip now say they would substitute it with a domestic trip, while about a quarter of prospective travelers are looking toward Europe, Mexico, and the Caribbean.
As of February 17, China also opened up visa-free entry for all Canadian citizens, allowing up to 30 days of travel for business, tourism, family visits, or transit.
