International Travel

U.S. tourist spots hope Canadian visitors return

International Travel
where should we go

(This is a slightly different version of a story we wrote for NBC News)

The adage “time heals all wounds” is not holding true for Canadian travelers and their desire to vacation in the United States.

Visits to the U.S. from Canada are down 25.2%, year to date, with a 37% year-over-year drop in arrivals by car in July alone, according to Tourism Economics.

“Canadians were already concerned over their personal finances, but they’ve taken the rhetoric and policy announcements from the U.S. administration very personally,” said Amir Eylon, president and CEO of market research firm Longwoods International, which has been regularly surveying Canadian consumers.

“Unfortunately, things have gone from bad to worse,” he added.

A whopping 80% of Canadian travelers whose travel decisions are being influenced by U.S. policy and politics say U.S. tariffs and economic policy are the major negative influence.

71% say political statements by U.S. leaders are a key negative factor, up from 64% in April, according to Longwoods International’s mid-July survey.

Where are Canadians going instead of visiting the U.S.?

Instead of visiting the United States, where AAA says Labor Day weekend travelers are enjoying lower year-over-year prices for everything from gas, hotels and flights to car rental costs, disgruntled Canadians are planning to travel within their own country or book flights to other nations.

“They’re choosing destinations such as Mexico, the Caribbean and Western Europe,” Eylon said.

It is not just Canadians who are staying away.

Geopolitical and policy-related concerns have also led to a decrease in visitors from Western Europe and Asia, experts say. Overseas arrivals to the U.S. dropped three months in a row, including a 3.1% drop in July, bringing the year-to-date decline to 1.6%, according to Tourism Economics.

Overall, the “sentiment drag has proven severe,” the group said in a data update released last week. In December, it had forecast an approximate 9% increase in overall international arrivals to the United States for 2025. It now expects an 8.2% decline.

Coming soon: another reason for visitors to stay away

Overseas visitor numbers throughout the United States may dip even further due to the $250 visa integrity fee set to go into effect on Oct. 1. The new charge would be layered on top of other visa fees and apply to most anyone applying for a nonimmigrant visa for travel to the United States, including visitors from China, Mexico and Brazil. 

The U.S. Travel Association calls it “a misguided junk fee” that will hike the upfront costs of visiting the U.S. by 130% just as the cities across the country already reeling from the loss of international visitors are preparing for major global events such as the 2026 FIFA World Cup, America’s 250th birthday and the 2028 Summer Olympics.

The fee, part of Trump’s signature tax and spending law, requires coordination across agencies before it’s implemented, said a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, who defended the measure. “President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill provides the necessary policies and resources to restore to our nation’s immigration system.”

Autumn of discontent

Destinations across the United States are bracing for further travel dips in the fall and are adjusting expectations and carefully crafting or holding off on new campaigns.

“Our international visitors were forecasted to grow by 15% in 2025 but are now forecast to drop by 10%,” said Dave O’Donnell, vice president of strategic communications for Meet Boston.

In response, the group is planning winter campaigns and media missions to Mexico, the United Kingdom and, most notably, Canada. The group plans to host an event in Toronto in September, O’Donnell said.

In Rochester, New York, 90 minutes from the Canadian-U.S. border, 12% to 15% of visitors have traditionally come from Canada.

Summer numbers aren’t in yet, but “we know some Canadians are choosing to stay home or travel to alternative destinations beyond the U.S.,” said Rachel Laber Pulvino, vice president of communications for Visit Rochester.

Rochester’s tourist attractions include the George Eastman Museum, the Strong National Museum of Play and the National Susan B. Anthony Museum & House. The city’s summer and fall tourism promotion plans have shifted from traditional tourism marketing messages to a “softer” approach, Laber Pulvino said, including a “Dear Canada” campaign launched earlier this summer. 

“It is essentially a love letter to our neighbors to the north. Our message is simple: When you’re ready, we will be here,” she said.

Canadians made 20.4 million visits to the United States in 2024. This year, the steep pullback of Canadian visitors is expected to most negatively affect northern cities such as Seattle; Portland, Oregon; and Detroit. In those cities, overall international visitors are expected to decline this year by about 27%, 18% and 17%, respectively, according to Tourism Economics.

“We typically like to be at the top of lists, but not this one,” Michael Woody, chief strategy officer for Visit Seattle, said.

Woody said the projected dip is “certainly concerning” for Seattle. But, he added, Seattle is having a great summer thanks to an uptick in domestic visitors, summer concerts by Lady Gaga and several other headliners, and a cruise season that the Port of Seattle estimates is bringing about 1.9 million passengers to the city.

“We’re looking forward to when Canadian visitor numbers bound back, but that’s driven by so many factors that we don’t have any control over,” he said.

In Portland, tourism has remained flat compared with last summer, largely due to a decline in Canadian visitors, said Jackie Hagan, director of communications for Travel Portland. But, heading into fall, Hagan said the tourism agency is taking a wait-and-see approach to reaching out to Canadian visitors.

“It’s important for us to acknowledge and respect their current decisions not to travel to the U.S., while also expressing that we look forward to their return when the time feels right,” she said.

Meanwhile, how’s it going in Florida?

Not all states and cities are wringing their hands over international visitor statistics.

Recently released data from Visit Florida Research estimates that 34.4 million visitors traveled to the Sunshine State in the second quarter of 2025, up 5% over the same period in 2024. That includes 640,000 Canadians — down 20% year over year — and 2.3 million overseas visitors, up 11.4% year over year.

In a statement celebrating the uptick in overall visits, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said, “People from all over the world come to the Free State of Florida to take advantage of our top-tier attractions, great weather, and our commitment to public safety.”

Greg Fisher, founder and CEO of Destin, Florida-based tour- and activity-booking site TripShock, is surprised that visitor numbers are up.

The tour operators his company works with report that business is either flat or down so far in 2025, he said. “Many of us in Florida are left wondering where these visitors are actually going and what they’re spending their money on,” he said.

Perhaps they are going to the Palm Beaches. There, international visitation for the first half of 2025 is up 2.56% year over year, according to Milton Segarra, CEO of tourism marketing organization Discover the Palm Beaches.

While Canadian visitors to the area dipped 4.4% year over year, international markets such as Brazil, the United Kingdom, Germany and Colombia saw growth, he said.

Segarra tied the increased visitation to factors such as new tourism offerings and, of course, the global spotlight as President Trump’s selected home base.” Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home is in ritzy Palm Beach.

International flights: cheaper. Int’l trips: pricier

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(This is a slightly different version of our story for NBC News)

A last-minute summer flight to London or Rome costs less than it did a year ago, but the good news ends at the customs checkpoint.

U.S. travelers to the U.K. and Europe are finding their dollars don’t go as far as they did just months ago.

Exchange rates haven’t been kind to Americans abroad this year.

The dollar index — which tracks the greenback against a handful of other major currencies — has plunged 10.3% so far this year, its worst half-year performance since 1973, largely due to President Donald Trump’s ongoing global trade war. While some analysts expect a partial rebound for the dollar this month, its worth has fallen against both the euro and pound.

Today €1 now buys about $1.17, versus only $1.08 a year ago. In the U.K., £1 fetches $1.36, about 8 cents more than in early July 2024.

Some of the currency swings have been quite recent. A ticket to a London play that cost £100, or about $134.68, at the beginning of June would cost $136.16 now. A three-night Barcelona hotel bill of €850, about $965 a little over a month ago, will set you back $996 today.

International airfares are down. Yay!

Fortunately, cheaper international airfares are cushioning the blow.

Tickets to Europe and Asia are down 10% and 13%, respectively, since last year at this time and have returned to pre-pandemic pricing, according to the booking platform Hopper.

And travel experts at Going.com recently found some of the lowest-ever deals for certain flights to Sydney, Rio de Janeiro and Dublin this fall.

Many consumers appear to be taking advantage of bargain tickets. Even as international travelers pull back on visiting the U.S., Americans are venturing abroad. Travel volumes among U.S. citizens returning home at major airports’ passport control were up about 2% over the 28 days through June 21 since the same period a year ago, according to Tourism Economics, a market research firm.

While budget considerations are affecting who’s deciding to vacation abroad and how to spend when they do, consumer finance experts and travel industry analysts say broader economic uncertainty is playing a bigger role.

“If you’re going to cancel an international trip, it’s not going to be because of the dollar,” said Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate. “It’s going to be because you’re worried about getting laid off, you’re worried about geopolitical issues, or don’t have the money saved up and the only way to pay for it is to put it on the credit card and finance it at 20% interest.”

For any travelers with heartburn over the weaker dollar, McBride noted that it “still compares pretty favorably to levels we saw in 2021, and it’s still better than pretty much anytime between 2003 and 2014.”

Indeed, Tourism Economics found travel spending by U.S. residents abroad rose 8.6% in the first four months of the year from the same period a year earlier. “This indicates continued U.S. outbound demand,” the firm said.

While the economy and household finances always influence travel demand, “today those factors are looking to have more of a negative impact than positive one,” said Nicki Zink, deputy head of industry analysis at the market research firm Morning Consult.

In the group’s recent survey, 31% of consumers said both the state of the U.S. economy and personal financial pressures are reducing their interest in leisure travel in the next three months, “higher than any other factor we survey about,” said Zink.

For its own part, the tourism market research firm Future Partners found 47% of American travelers are likely to venture abroad in the next 12 months, but 35% said uncertainty around U.S. policy changes had already caused them to reconsider or delay those plans.

And in a NerdWallet survey last month, 11% of consumers said they’d scrapped international travel plans this year over global relations or economic uncertainty.

Plenty of Americans are still packing their passports, though. Millennials, for example, “are increasingly considering international destinations, despite the higher cost compared with domestic trips,” said Zink, adding that interest in destinations across South and Central America, the Caribbean and northern Europe have risen this year.

Wealthy travelers are also still traveling with gusto, extending a trend that has intensified since the recovery from the pandemic.

“Our affluent clients are still going after those bucket-list adventures and once-in-a-lifetime experiences,” said Mandee Migliaccio, CEO of the New Jersey-based agency Stepping Out Travel Services. “While they’re definitely keeping an eye on the headlines, they typically won’t change plans unless a destination really becomes unstable.”

Migliaccio acknowledged she has seen some subtle shifts lately, with some clients asking to trim flight costs or deciding to skip a stop to keep things more efficient.

“It’s not so much ‘I can’t go’ as it is, ‘How can I make this work for me?’” she said. “People are being strategic, spending where it matters most, and opting for curated experiences over excess,

Canadians cutting out U.S. travel

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This is a slightly different version of a story we wrote first for NBC News online.

Michael Mortensen was looking forward to spending two weeks in Hawaii with his family last month, but his patriotism wouldn’t let him.

The Vancouver-based development consultant and urban planner said he’s refusing to spend money south of the border while President Donald Trump “levies idiotic tariffs and rains chaos” on Americans and Canadians alike.

Mortensen, 58, had budgeted about $10,000 for accommodations, food and entertainment, but he’s now exploring alternative destinations that bypass the U.S. “without even a connection or layover.” He added that he wrote letters to Hawaii’s governor and the state’s tourism board explaining his decision.

Trump’s escalating trade war against America’s closest allies and trade partners isn’t just rattling stock markets and drawing retaliation from Beijing, Brussels and Ottawa.

It’s also fueling a backlash among ordinary consumers across the northern border.

Two-thirds of Canadians said they’d significantly reduced their purchases of American products in stores (68%) and online (65%), and 59% said they’re less likely to visit the U.S. this year than in 2024, according to a survey last week by the Canadian market researcher Leger.

Some 36% of Canadians with U.S. travel plans said they’d already canceled them.

Canadians made an estimated 20.4 million visits to the U.S. last year, a number expected to rise by more than a million in 2025, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

But the industry group warned last month that even a 10% drop in those visits would cost $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 jobs.

Already, Canada’s statistical agency reported a 23% drop in Canadian car trips to the U.S. last month compared with February 2024 and a 2.4% dip in residents’ round-trip air travel.

Lisa Shea, a college English professor in Gatineau, Quebec, has plans to visit multiple cities in California with three of her best friends in June. But “given the current political climate,” she said they’re considering canceling and taking a loss on their nonrefundable flights.

“I prefer to direct my investments toward markets where stability and mutual respect are a priority,” said Shea, 56.

Some Canadians plan to stay out of the United States until Trump’s out of office.

Cam Hayden, 69, owner of the Edmonton Blues Festival and a regular at American blues events throughout the U.S., said he’s boycotting the country until “some sense of normalcy returns,” calling it “a matter of conscience.”

Sam Chungyampin, 39, feels similarly. He was excited about Coachella’s lineup this year but is skipping the California music festival he’s attended three times previously.

“I have no plans on going to the U.S. for the next four years,” the Vancouver-based marketing consultant said. Trump is “giving everyone a headache. I’m so sick of this,” he said.

“There is a souring national mood toward the U.S.,” said Christian Wolters, the Canada president and general manager of North America marketing at tour organizer Intrepid Travel.

He said many Canadian customers are pivoting away from the U.S. to travel domestically or take short-haul flights to destinations such as Mexico and Costa Rica.

At just a three-hour flight from Toronto, Bermuda is poised to prosper from the trend. Hamilton Princess & Beach Club said it’s received at least 10 inquiries from Canadians over the past week looking to relocate or plan new business events, weddings and leisure trips there this summer.

The property now forecasts a 20% jump in revenue from the Canadian market due to the recent spike in interest.

Canadians accounted for around 40% of international visitors to South Florida’s Palm Beach County last year, according to Discover the Palm Beaches. The local tourism organization estimated those visits generated a half-billion dollars in annual economic impact.

Worried about a dent to that spending, the group said it has raced to retool the pitch it’s making in Toronto, where it’s had a marketing event on the books for months.

“The trip has shifted to maintaining our strong relationships with Canadian media and clients,” CEO Milton Segarra said. Rather than just highlighting new local attractions, “we will also share special offers and deals to emphasize the value of our destination to attendees,” he said.

In Thousand Islands on the St. Lawrence River, a popular vacation region straddling northern New York and southern Ontario, passenger traffic at the border was down 3% in January from the same month last year and 12% lower in the first two weeks of February from a year earlier, the 1000 Islands International Tourism Council said.

Marketing campaigns for the area are usually binational, showing off Canadian attractions alongside American ones, said Corey Fram, the council’s director, “because we know that makes us unique. But it’s a challenge to do that now because we’re getting pushback on ads.”

It’s a similar predicament at the opposite end of Lake Ontario, where a Niagara-area tourism group recently said it’s “actively revising our Buffalo Loves Canada campaign.” Cross-border traffic on the region’s four international bridges fell more than 14% last month from the year before, it said, and Canadian traffic to its website crashed by 45%.

The 1000 Islands council is now adjusting its marketing to show American audiences attractions on the U.S. side of the border and doing the reverse in Canada. At the same time, it’s deploying a hopeful, split-the-difference tagline: “1000 Islands. Where we’ve always met in the middle.”

Liisa Ladouceur, 51, is splitting the difference as well. She’s canceled her March trip to Las Vegas but will travel to Detroit in April with her best friend, for a concert they bought tickets to months ago.

But instead of spending a long weekend and around $1,000 in the Motor City on accommodations, shopping, meals and museums, they’ll enter the U.S. for the show and then cross the Detroit River, staying overnight in Windsor, Ontario, before heading home.

“I’m recommending Canadians spend their leisure travel money here — or anywhere but the USA, really,” Ladouceur said. “It feels like a duty now.”

U.S. passport renewal times are down

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U.S. State Department says passport processing times are down

If you’re planning an international trip in the next few months, be sure to check the expiration date on your passport.

If it’s expired or will expire within the next six months, you’ll need to get a new passport issued.

And you’ll need to wait.

Back in March, it was taking a minimum of 10 to 13 weeks to get a passport renewed, not including the time it took to mail the passports back and forth. Expedited service, which cost an extra $60, only cut the time down to seven to nine weeks.

Now, things are moving a bit faster.

The State Department reports that it should now take seven to 10 weeks to process routine passport applications. And if you’re willing to pay for expedited service, the turnaround time should be just three to five weeks. Again, exclusive of mailing time, which can add another two weeks.

A lot of passports expired during the pandemic. And now that so many people are traveling internationally, the State Department is having a hard time keeping up with demand. Although the agency says that during the last federal fiscal year (October 2022 to September 2023) it issued more than 24 million passport books and cards, which is the country’s record year so far.

Need a new or renewed passport?

You can get information on how to apply for a new or renewed passport here.

You can check on the status of an existing application here.

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