Canadian car visits to the U.S. dropped by 36.9 per cent in July compared to the same time last year, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
Notably, this is an increase from the 33 per cent drop in June and the seventh consecutive month of declining Canadian travel to the U.S. On top of that, Statistics Canada confirmed that air travel to the U.S. dropped by 25.8 per cent year-over-year in June.
These numbers are hardly surprising. After all, many Canadians are opting not to travel over U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated, uncalled-for attacks against both Canada’s sovereignty (through egregious “51st state” rhetoric) and economy (via unreasonable tariffs). With respect to the latter, the U.S. recently hit Canada with 35 per cent tariffs on goods not covered by the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA).
Naturally, all of this has hurt relations between the two countries, especially as Canada has long been one of the U.S.’ greatest allies. To that point, recent polling from the Pew Research Center found that 59 per cent of Canadians now see the U.S. as a threat.
On top of all of that, many travellers, especially those of colour, feel unsafe heading to the U.S. amid Trump’s tyrannical use of ICE to detain and lock up people. There have been many reports of travellers, including a woman from Canada, who were held in an ICE detention centre for weeks.
Of course, this all has a major economic cost on the U.S. According to the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office, Canadian tourists account for roughly 25 per cent of all foreign travellers in the country. Last year alone, Canadian tourists spent over US$20 billion (about C$27.52 billion), a sum that has been significantly slashed because of the U.S. government’s actions.
To put this into perspective, the U.S. Travel Association notes that US$1.8 billion (about C$2.47 billion) is lost for every one per cent drop in international spending. This means that the U.S. stands to lose at least US$21 billion (about C$28.9 billion) by the end of the year over the decline in Canadian travel.
Ultimately, this is an easily avoidable problem of Trump’s own making,
Source: Statistics Canada Via: Forbes
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