For decades, crossing the U.S. border for shopping, a weekend getaway or a winter escape was almost routine for millions of Canadians. That habit has changed dramatically. Canadian-resident return crossings from the United States fell 25.4% in 2025, while spending on U.S. trips dropped by roughly C$3.3 billion. Political tensions have played a major role, but a weaker Canadian dollar and higher travel costs have added another layer of resistance.
Now parts of the American tourism industry are trying to rebuild the relationship from the ground up. New York has launched Canadian-only discounts, Las Vegas properties have experimented with treating Canadian dollars at par, and national tourism marketers are preparing a fresh Canadian campaign. The challenge is increasingly clear: discounts can make an American vacation cheaper, but repairing Canadians’ willingness to take one may prove considerably harder.
The 25% Drop Was Far More Than a Normal Tourism Slowdown
Canadian-resident return crossings from the United States fell 25.4% in 2025 compared with 2024, dropping from roughly 39 million to about 29.1 million. Statistics Canada described the retreat as unusually deep: excluding the pandemic, the 11-month run of year-over-year declines was the longest sustained downturn in available digital border records dating to 1972. At the low point in July 2025, crossings were nearly one-third below year-earlier levels.
The financial effect travelled with those missing visitors. Canadians spent about C$18.8 billion on U.S. trips during 2025, down from C$22.1 billion in 2024—a reduction of roughly C$3.3 billion. That money normally reaches hotels, restaurants, gas stations, retailers and attractions across dozens of states. For destinations accustomed to Canadians arriving almost automatically because of proximity, the abrupt change turned a diplomatic dispute into a very practical tourism problem.
New York Is Offering Canadians Discounts of Up to 30%
Few states illustrate the response more clearly than New York. The state launched its “NY Loves Canada” initiative after Canadian visitation declined by more than 26% in 2025. The campaign gathers discounts on accommodation, restaurants, attractions and outdoor activities while pairing those savings with an unusually explicit message that Canadian visitors remain welcome despite the tensions between Washington and Ottawa.
New York City went further with its Northern Neighbour Deal. From August 18 through September 7, participating Canadians can receive 30% discounts at more than 85 hotels, restaurants, Broadway productions, museums and attractions. Porter Airlines separately offered discounts of up to 20% on qualifying New York itineraries. Canada remains New York City’s second-largest international visitor market, with approximately 820,000 visitors forecast for 2026. That makes restoring Canadian demand more than a public-relations exercise; it directly affects one of America’s largest tourism economies.
Las Vegas Tried Something More Dramatic: Treating the Loonie at Par
Three downtown Las Vegas properties took direct aim at one of the most obvious financial barriers facing Canadians: the exchange rate. Circa Resort & Casino, the D Las Vegas and Golden Gate Hotel & Casino ran an “At Par” program through August 31 that effectively treated C$1 as US$1 for qualifying hotel stays, drinks, gaming promotions and selected entertainment. Canadian identification was required to participate.
The promotion produced striking results. The participating properties said more than 120,000 Canadians used the program during its eight-month run, Canadian visitation to the properties increased 80%, and more than 8,000 hotel room nights were booked through the offer. The casinos also reported more than US$20 million in slot coin-in connected with the initiative. The program has now concluded, but its performance demonstrated something important to tourism operators: substantial financial incentives can still motivate a segment of Canadians despite the broader cross-border downturn.
The Push to Win Canada Back Is Becoming a National Strategy
Individual destinations are not acting alone. Brand USA, the organization responsible for promoting the United States internationally, is expanding its Travel Week program into Canada. The October 26-to-29 event will take place in Toronto and Montreal, bringing American destinations together with Canadian travel advisers, media organizations and other companies that influence where Canadians spend their vacation budgets.
Brand USA is also preparing a Canadian-focused digital marketing campaign based on consumer research and focus groups. Rather than advertising indiscriminately, officials have said the campaign will concentrate on Canadians whose online behaviour indicates openness to visiting the United States. The push arrives during a broader international-tourism challenge. U.S. foreign arrivals were down 4.7% through July 2026, according to figures cited by Reuters. Tourism executives recently met with President Donald Trump as the industry seeks ways to increase international visitation and rebuild markets that have weakened.
Road Trips Reveal How Quickly Canadians Changed Their Habits
The decline was especially visible at the land border. Automobile trips are easier to cancel than expensive flights booked months ahead, making road travel an early indicator of changing sentiment. Canadian vehicle crossings contracted sharply in 2025, removing countless weekend shopping runs, sporting-event trips and short holidays from communities stretching from Washington state to Maine.
Road traffic has begun improving against the depressed numbers recorded last year, but the comparison with 2024 tells a different story. In July 2026, Canadian return trips from the United States by automobile were up 12.8% from July 2025. Yet they remained 28.9% below July 2024. Even the newly opened Gordie Howe International Bridge between Windsor and Detroit recorded 18,900 Canadian-resident return trips during its first five days of operation. Infrastructure is expanding and traffic is recovering somewhat, but the volume of Canadians driving south remains far below where it stood before the political rupture.
Air Travel Is Recovering Even More Slowly
Air traffic suggests the tourism industry’s challenge extends beyond spontaneous road trips. In July 2026, 378,482 Canadians returned from the United States by air. That was 1.4% fewer than in July 2025 and 26.8% below the July 2024 level. In other words, while automobile travel has started producing year-over-year gains, Canadian air travel to the United States has not shown the same rebound.
Canadian airport screening numbers tell a similar story. Transborder passenger traffic at Canada’s eight largest airports declined 0.9% year over year in July, marking an 18th consecutive month of decreases. Traffic was still 8.7% below July 2024. That matters because tourists arriving by air are frequently taking longer trips involving hotels, restaurants, rental vehicles and entertainment. The continued weakness therefore represents more than empty airline seats—it points to spending that many American tourism businesses have yet to recover.
Canadians Did Not Stop Travelling — They Changed Destinations
One reason the American industry is fighting so aggressively for Canadians is that the missing travel demand did not simply disappear. Roughly 7.1 million fewer Canadian return crossings from the United States were recorded in 2025, while domestic Canadian travel increased by about five million trips and overseas travel rose by approximately 1.3 million. Vacation dollars were being redirected instead of eliminated.
That pattern continued into 2026. During the first quarter, Canadians made 5.5 million trips involving a U.S. visit, down 10.6% year over year, while spending on those visits declined 13.6% to C$5 billion. Overseas visits, meanwhile, rose 6.2% to 4.6 million and spending jumped 16.7% to C$10.1 billion. Mexico attracted 1.3 million Canadian visits during the quarter, while the Dominican Republic drew 441,000. For U.S. destinations, the competitive problem is therefore increasingly international rather than simply economic.
Billions of Dollars and Thousands of U.S. Jobs Depend on Canadians
Canada entered the dispute as the United States’ largest international visitor market. U.S. Travel Association figures show 20.4 million Canadian visits generated about US$20.5 billion in spending during 2024 and supported approximately 140,000 American jobs. Before the downturn fully unfolded, the organization estimated that even a 10% reduction in Canadian visits could eliminate roughly US$2.1 billion in spending and threaten 14,000 jobs.
The exposure is not evenly distributed. Florida recorded about 3.17 million Canadian visitors in 2025, a 6.8% decline from 2024. California estimates that its Canadian visitation dropped 20.1%, while New York reported a decline exceeding 26%. U.S. Travel identified Florida, California, Nevada, New York and Texas among the states most heavily visited by Canadians. For hotel operators, restaurant owners and retailers in those markets, attracting Canadians back is therefore less about international diplomacy than recovering customers who once formed a dependable part of annual revenue.
Snowbird Season Will Be the Next Major Test
Summer produced tentative signs of improvement in border traffic, helped partly by extraordinarily weak comparisons with 2025. Winter may provide a clearer test. Large numbers of Canadians traditionally travel to warmer American destinations, making Florida, Arizona, Nevada and California particularly sensitive to whether the cross-border pullback becomes a lasting behavioural change rather than a temporary protest.
Florida demonstrates both the scale and complexity of the situation. The state ultimately counted 3.17 million Canadian visitors in 2025 after revising earlier estimates, representing a 6.8% annual decline. California experienced a considerably steeper 20.1% decrease and currently forecasts only a modest 2.6% Canadian rebound in 2026. Tourism operators will therefore be watching bookings closely as temperatures fall in Canada. If Canadians who normally head south continue choosing Mexico, the Caribbean or domestic alternatives, American destinations may discover that rebuilding a decades-old travel habit requires far more than one season of promotions.
Discounts Can Fix the Exchange Rate — But Not the Relationship
Price remains a genuine obstacle. The weaker Canadian dollar makes American hotels, restaurant meals and entertainment noticeably more expensive once converted into Canadian currency. Promotions such as Las Vegas’s at-par offer and New York City’s 30% discounts directly attack that problem. They also send a softer message: local tourism businesses want Canadian customers even when relations between the two national governments are strained.
Yet current behaviour suggests cost is only part of the story. The Associated Press interviewed Canadians who had previously vacationed regularly in U.S. destinations but chose Mexico or avoided American travel because of political tensions and concerns about how Canada was being treated. By July 2026, automobile crossings were still 28.9% below July 2024 levels and air crossings were 26.8% lower. Those numbers explain why American tourism organizations are becoming increasingly creative. A discount can change the price of a vacation overnight. Rebuilding trust, familiarity and enthusiasm across the border could take much longer.
