Trump's tariffs strain relations with neighboring Canada – travel from there to the US declines

Business Insider Trump's tariffs strain relations with neighboring Canada – travel from there to the US declines Dan Latu • 9 hours • 3 minutes read Travel from Canada to the US declined in March. The number of Canadians staying in Airbnbs in the US fell sharply last month, according to new data from AirDNA, a website that analyzes the short-term rental market. In March, there was a 12.1 percent decline in overnight stays booked by Canadian travelers compared to March 2024. In response to growing tensions between the two countries due to the tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump in January, Canadians have reduced their travel to the US. The short-term rental market as a whole remained stable in March, with average revenue per listing increasing 1.3 percent year-on-year. Canadian travelers made up only a small portion of the US market—they accounted for just 2.6 percent of all bookings last year. It's unclear whether the decline seen in March will continue into April and beyond. Canadians booked slightly more short-stay stays in the US in January and February 2025—before Donald Trump's tariffs—than in the same months of 2024. However, Canadians have a larger market share in certain locations near the northern US border, including Buffalo, New York; Bellingham, Washington; and popular destinations for "winter migrants" escaping the snow, such as Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "It may not hit the industry evenly, but some places will be more affected," Bram Gallagher, economist at AirDNA, told Business Insider (BI). Airbnb declined to comment. Canadians Cancel Their Trips to the USA In February, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to reconsider their travel plans to the USA and instead support domestic tourism. Apparently, some Canadians heeded his call. The number of Canadians traveling to the USA in February fell by 23 percent compared to the previous year, according to Statistics Canada. In March, travel company OAG reported that bookings for flights from Canada to the USA from April to September were down more than 70 percent compared to the previous year. Banners supporting Canadian visitors are displayed in Palm Springs, California. In Palm Springs, California, Airbnb host Robert Carlson reported in a BI interview in March that a longtime Canadian guest abruptly cut short his March California vacation and canceled an upcoming reservation for $7,000 (approximately €6,150). "I'm having real trouble sleeping here right now. I'm cutting my stay short and going back to Canada," he wrote in an email to Carlson. Carlson feared that a Canadian couple booking $17,000 (about €14,900) might follow suit later in the year. The US Travel Association estimates that a 10 percent decline in travel from Canada in 2025 could result in the loss of 14,000 jobs and $2.1 billion (about €1.84 billion) in lost spending. Canadian Patriotism Expressed Meanwhile, some Canadians feel a strong sense of national pride. Toronto-based consultant Dylan Lobo told BI that traffic to his website Made in CA, an online directory of Canadian-made goods, has spiked. Since January, he said, there have been days when traffic tripled overnight. The biggest spike occurred on February 1, when US President Trump imposed 25 percent tariffs on most Canadian goods, boosting visitor numbers to more than 100,000, he said. BI could not independently verify Made in CA's readership. "There's a lot of patriotism in this country right now," Lobo said. Gallagher of AirDNA fears that Airbnb hosts in the US might sympathize with travelers from Canada. "It could become something marketed to express solidarity with Canadian visitors," he said.