The travel boycott of President Donald Trump’s America is picking up speed, and Canadians are taking the lead.
In March, the number of Canadian residents returning by vehicle from the U.S. fell 32 per cent from the year before, to 1.5 million, according to a new report from Statistics Canada.
It was the third monthly decline in a row, and follows Mr. Trump’s imposition of an array of tariffs on Canadian goods and his repeated insults and attacks on Canadian sovereignty.
Canada isn’t alone in ditching travel to the U.S. When Delta Air Lines scrapped its financial forecast for the year on Wednesday, it blamed the decision on a travel industry that has “largely stalled.” However, when it comes to foreigners visiting the U.S. by air, travel has outright collapsed.
International arrivals at several major U.S. airports have plummeted, down by between 10 and 15 per cent compared to a year ago, according to passenger numbers published by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The trend stands in stark contrast to domestic passenger traffic, which has held steady or increased from last year.
The sudden drop in international visits to the U.S. reflects anger at Mr. Trump’s flailing trade war as well as fears about being detained at the U.S. border, after numerous reports of tourists being arrested.
The spreading travel boycott is expected to tear a hole in America’s massive tourism industry. Canadians spent $30-billion on travel in the U.S. in 2023, doubled what Americans spent here. Even a 10-per-cent drop in that spending would lead to 14,000 job losses in the travel sector, the U.S. Travel Association warned in February.
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