This past spring, Patrick Twomey recorded a TikTok that went viral. Against a backdrop of trees and snow, the founder of 2Me Travel — a company based in Banff, Alberta — announced that he and his company would no longer travel to the United States.
“I’m not comfortable crossing the border, and I’m not comfortable spending money under a regime that is attacking my home and also countries that I have a lot of warmth to,” Mr. Twomey told the Monitor in a phone interview.
Earlier this year, the adventurer offered customers a chance to redirect their tours elsewhere or cancel the trips entirely.
Why We Wrote This
The U.S. is the only country of 184 that is expected to experience a drop in tourist spending this year. New England states in particular are grappling with an ongoing Canadian travel boycott.
“There was a lot of appetite for New England this year, and I just said, ‘I can’t do it,’” says Mr. Twomey.
His sentiments are just one part of a broader international tourism dip impacting the United States. Last December, Tourism Economics forecasted that overseas travel to the U.S. in 2025 would increase more than 10% year-over-year. That number is now on track to fall 3%. And in a study released in May from the World Travel & Tourism Council analyzing the economic impact of tourism in 184 countries, the U.S. was the only country forecast to see international visitor spending decline in 2025. The U.S. is on track to lose $12.5 billion in spending compared with last year. Canadians made up roughly one-quarter of all foreign travelers who visited the U.S. in 2024, and spent $20.5 billion while there.
The drop in Canadian tourists is particularly concerning for New England states including Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine – all of which share a border with Canada. The number of Canadian passenger vehicles traveling into those states was approximately 228,000 in July, down about 105,000 vehicles compared with last year. That’s a 32% drop, according to recent U.S. Customs and Border Protection data.
But with many Canadians swearing off U.S. travel after President Donald Trump’s push this year to declare Canada the 51st state, states that usually have strong relationships with their northern neighbors find themselves reaching for solutions. Options have ranged from renaming streets and offering special discounts to hoping the fall leaf-peeping season and visitors from other states will make up the difference. But even some Americans are steering clear.
Toronto resident Catherine Maule found herself rethinking her annual summer trip to visit her family in Maine. Ms. Maule, an American, met her Canadian husband in college and moved to his home country in 2000. In June, she penned an op-ed for the Bangor Daily News explaining her decision to forgo traveling to the U.S.
“I was just sort of wrestling with some very complicated feelings about what’s happening politically in the United States, and in particular watching the expulsion of immigrants,” she says by phone. “It feels to me very much like a moral decision, an ethical decision. It’s less about a personal fear.”
Ms. Maule’s American friends in Canada “are wrestling with similar issues.” Many, she says, “have made the same decision that – at least for now – they won’t go.”
Both Ms. Maule and Mr. Twomey know many Canadians who have canceled their trips to the U.S., instead opting for domestic travel in Canada or trips abroad elsewhere.
“It’s almost embarrassing at home now to say you’re going,” Mr. Twomey says. “It has to be something necessary.”
Visit Rue Canada. Please?
Vermont’s tourism department has partnered with local businesses to offer discounts to Canadian visitors. And in a symbolic gesture, over the summer, Burlington’s City Council temporarily renamed one of its main streets to Canada Street, or Rue Canada.
Between January and July, there was a 30% decrease in Canadians crossing the border to Vermont compared with the same period in 2024. According to the Vermont Department of Tourism and Marketing, Canadian visitors normally total around 750,000 annually and contribute approximately $150 million to the state’s economy.
While complete data on summer tourism numbers will take months to come out, “anecdotally … things are a little soft this year,” says Jeff Lawson, the director of Hello Burlington and vice president of tourism and marketing at the Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Local businesses, he says, aren’t seeing “the levels of visitors that they would normally see.” Mr. Lawson points to marinas on Lake Champlain that “have seen a pretty steep drop in their slip rentals, and a lot of that can be attributed directly to Canada, since we do share a lake with Quebec.”
Mr. Lawson has heard from many Canadians who have changed their travel plans.
“A lot of the people that write in from Canada are remarkably thoughtful and respectful, and they say, ‘Hey, we love Burlington, we love Vermont. We know you guys didn’t really vote for this, but you have to understand. We’ve come every year for the last 20 years, but we’re not coming until something changes at the federal level,” he recounts. “We just don’t feel comfortable putting money into the American economy at this time.’”
For his part, Mr. Lawson says he understands.
“Definitely a bitter pill to swallow when we realize this is just outside of our influence and it’s not something we ask for or necessarily deserve, though that’s kind of got nothing to do with it,” he says. “They’re just making a decision in the best interest of their country.”
Riley Robinson/Staff/File
Welcome to Maine
Domestic travel to Maine has buoyed that state’s economy, with stateside tourists seeking out rugged New England charm and Portland’s trendy food scene. Visitor numbers at Acadia National Park are up, as are Maine Turnpike toll numbers. And at Portland International Jetport, passenger traffic is up 9% over last year’s all-time high.
The good news comes after high-level concerns from Maine’s governor that the Pine Tree State could lose 225,000 Canadian tourists this year as a result of U.S.-Canada tensions.
“That’s hundreds of thousands fewer people staying in our hotels, our B&Bs, fewer people making reservations at restaurants, shopping at our small businesses, buying souvenirs and products that we retail here in Maine,” Gov. Janet Mills said at a news conference this spring.
Over Memorial Day weekend in May, the streets of the midcoastal towns of Camden and Rockport, as well as the Penobscot Bay island of Vinalhaven, were noticeably emptier than usual. Several restaurants had not yet opened for the season. For her part, Governor Mills visited Canada in June, and the Maine Office of Tourism installed signs welcoming Canadians at the border.
“While domestic visitation is keeping activity levels strong, the reduced presence of Canadian travelers can be felt in areas that traditionally rely on cross-border visitors,” the Maine Office of Tourism said in a statement. “Anecdotal feedback from local Chambers of Commerce and business owners suggests that domestic travel is helping balance out this dip, but international tourism remains an important piece of Maine’s long-term visitor economy.”
Will autumn leaves draw the peepers?
New Hampshire’s White Mountains faced a slow start to the summer, largely due to a string of rainy weekends, according to Charyl Reardon, president of the White Mountains Attractions Association. Visitor numbers picked up in July, but “natural attractions that kind of attract Canadian visitors are definitely seeing much more of an impact from their lack of visits than, say, an amusement park like Santa’s Village or Story Land.”
“A lot of it isn’t necessarily the dollar rate exchange or anything like that,” Ms. Reardon says. “It’s definitely, sadly, a little bit of a political exchange that’s kind of going on.”
As New England tourism bureaus and local businesses prepare for leaf-peeping season – late September to mid-October – and winter skiing, hopes for the elusive Canadian tourist remain low.
“I do think that we’ll continue to see that trend as we have this summer that [Canadians] necessarily won’t be visiting,” says Ms. Reardon.
“We certainly have a very good relationship with our friends to the north and are ready for them to visit when they are.”
