But the fortunes of ski resorts rise and fall with snow totals. And as tensions between the United States and Canada simmer once again, Wright decided to leave nothing to chance. He issued a statement last month declaring that, despite the political climate, Jay Peak, which sits near the Canadian border, is still welcoming.
“The border may feel different right now. We do not. You are our neighbors. You are our friends. You are part of this place,” he wrote.
Since President Trump took office in January 2025, the number of inbound Canadian visitors to the United States has dropped precipitously. A Canadian government report found a 25 percent decline in the overall number of Canadians who visited the US in 2025 compared to 2024. That’s 7 million fewer Canadians spending $3.3 billion less in the US in 2025 versus 2024.
A University of Toronto study found a more staggering drop. Using a tool that tracks cellphone data, the university found a “year-over-year median decline of approximately 42 percent in Canadian visits to US metropolitan areas.”
The University of Toronto research went beyond the border crossings and government statistics. It tracked tourists and their travel patterns within the US via their cellphones. In previous years, Canadians who visited the US to go to the beach in Maine may have tacked on a trip to Boston or New York. As a result, cellphone data found that metropolitan areas were among the hardest hit. Boston had a 52 percent decline in Canadian visits, Portland a 49 percent drop, Worcester a 45 percent decline, and Burlington a 48 percent drop.
“The hostility towards the US is really quite tangible,” said Karen Chapple, director of the School of Cities at the University of Toronto. She said a large part of her staff are refusing to go on an upcoming research trip to the United States. “It’s partly, ‘We’re not going there. We’re too scared to go there, or we are too angry to go there.’ There was a lot of eye-rolling about the Lake America name.”
Some in the tourism and hospitality sector became hopeful over the summer when the number of Canadians visiting the US ticked up slightly. Canadian government statistics confirmed the increase, but those gains were modest and negligible “relative to the sharp decline in 2025,” said Hazel Brewster, director of communications for Vermont’s Agency of Commerce and Community Development.
Brewster and others monitoring the situation fear that any gains may be short lived.
“At the moment, it’s too soon to speculate on the full ramifications of the latest tensions,” she said. “There was a sharp decline in travel to the US in February 2025 that correlated with previous tariffs and federal rhetoric.”
Even Canadian ill-will toward the US appeared to thaw slightly over the summer, according to a July study by the travel research company Longwoods International. But those minimal gains could easily erode as the tariff war and name-calling escalate.
“Some towns said they saw more Canadian visitors this summer than last summer, while others reported they saw no Canadian license plates,” said Maine state Representative Chellie Pingree, whose district covers many of Southern Maine’s most popular vacation towns. “We’ve already experienced a hit. But the latest round of tariff attacks and the antagonism from the president has ignited a panic of, ‘Oh no. Is it going to happen again? Is it possible that things can get even worse?’”
Canadians began curtailing trips to the United States and boycotting US-made goods en masse in early 2025, when Trump took office, began threatening tariffs, and dismissed Canada as “the 51st state.” Installing Nick Adams, who has spoken negatively about Canada, as the envoy of tourism did little to help tensions.
“He took a lake that no one thought about and that some in the world had never heard of, and overnight, he turned it into the most famous lake in the world,” Adams told Travel Weekly of the Lake Ontario name change. Adams provided no numbers to back his claim. “Everyone is talking about it, everyone wants to be there, everyone is going there.”
The war in Iran drew some attention away from US-Canada relations over the summer, but late last month the trade war between the two countries reignited. On Aug. 22, Trump imposed a 50 percent tariff on some Canadian-made goods. Canada responded in kind on Sept 8. Through it all, Trump has escalated the rancor with the lake renaming and posting memes on social media depicting a bald eagle attacking a Canada goose and a cartoon in which he’s yelling, “Get up, governor!” to Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has fallen on the ice and is being bested by Trump in a hockey match.
The latest scuffle only reinforces a decision many Canadians made last year: They’d had enough and made it clear they have no immediate plans to return to the United States. Instead, they’ve opted for domestic travel or new destinations. Meanwhile, angry snowbirds are putting their houses on the market.
“Since 2025, when Trump decided to increase tariffs on Canadian products and disrespect our country, I have been traveling to other countries,” said Jessica Dickson, a beautician who lives in Calgary. “In October 2025, I traveled to Japan, and in 2026 I traveled to Ireland. I also make an effort to visit more Canadian destinations.”
While politics may play into Canadians’ motivation to avoid traveling to the United States, an unfavorable exchange rate is also a factor.
“Historically, Canadians traveling to the US could absorb the currency conversion partly because there was an expectation that many things would cost less once you got there,” said Edmonton-based Tom Jackson, who works on brand marketing. “That equation feels different today.”
City and state tourism boards and local government officials have gone into overdrive making a case for Canadians to separate political divisiveness from what the United States has to offer, and, in some cases, providing economic incentives. Facing a severe drought of Canadian tourists last summer, Las Vegas launched a program called At Par, which treated $1 Canadian the same as the $1 US across hotels, gaming, and select beverage offerings.
Taking a page from the Vegas playbook, New York launched a “New York Loves Canada” campaign, offering discounts to northern tourists. Behind the scenes, state and city delegations have been traveling to Canadian cities to make the case for US tourism.
Kate Fox, executive director of the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism, will be in Ottawa, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto to promote the state. Massachusetts has also partnered with Brand USA, the country’s national tourism board, which markets the US to global travelers.
Next month, Brand USA launches Travel Week Canada, a four-day event taking place in Ontario and Quebec that brings together representatives from US destinations with Canadian consumer and trade media, along with travel advisors, to keep the US top of mind when talking to clients.
But is it enough? Tourism, tariffs, and Trump’s acrimony toward Canada are a persistent presence in the country’s TV, radio, and newspapers. Canadian nationalism has swelled since Trump began belittling the country, and a new round of anti-US sentiment has emerged.
“Snowbirds, for the love of country, resist the siren call of US travel,” read one column in the Globe and Mail this week, a national paper with a circulation of 6 million. Another piece, in the Sept. 11 Globe and Mail by the paper’s editorial board, sports the headline “Nostalgia is no strategy for US relations.”
“Canadians can never again have confidence their neighbor will not descend into a thuggish form of diplomacy,” the Globe and Mail’s editorial board wrote.
It’s these perspectives that haunt New England businesses that rely on Canadian tourists.
“When the narrative changes and the tension increases, that’s when you hold your breath,” said Wright of Jay Peak. “In the ski resort business, you become accustomed to the ups and downs of weather. That’s something you can’t control. But now we have another thing we can’t control: politics.”
Christopher Muther can be reached at christopher.muther@globe.com. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther.
