How do Canadians feel about U.S. travel one year into the boycott?

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Crossing the border has never really been optional for Christopher Y., a 39-year-old mechanical engineer from Windsor, Ont.

Christopher has commuted to Michigan for work since 2011. While the U.S. travel boycott hasn’t changed that reality, he said the experience feels more hostile and riskier than it once did.

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When he first began commuting during former president Barack Obama’s first term, he said he barely thought of the border as anything more than “a glorified toll booth.”

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As a Canadian of Chinese descent, that sense of ease began to fade after Donald Trump was elected president for the first time. “I recall feeling very uneasy, a sudden realization that a large contingent of people actually really do not want me there, partly because of my nationality but also my ethnicity.”

Christopher said he and his wife once spent much of their free time exploring Detroit and the American Midwest. Today, he still crosses for work, but rarely for leisure. “It has shifted my habits from spending much of my free time in the U.S. to basically only going to work and back,” he said.

Christopher, who asked Postmedia to omit his last name out of concern that it could lead to issues at the border, is one of many Canadians who have re-evaluated their travel spending and behaviour over the past year and a half, after trade war tensions and other geopolitical conflicts prompted an “elbows up” mentality across the country.

In 2025, Canadian return trips from the U.S. fell 25.4 per cent compared to 2024, bottoming out in July at nearly one-third below those reported a year earlier, according to Statistics Canada.

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However, rising cross-border travel trends suggest Canadians are beginning to warm to the United States again, at least on paper. Whether that momentum will continue following Trump’s July 20 announcement of new 50 per cent tariffs on a broad range of Canadian goods remains unclear.

Statistics Canada reported Canadian residents made 1.7 million return trips to the U.S. in June 2026, up 3.2 per cent from the same month in 2025 and marking the third consecutive month of year-over-year growth.

Flight search data points in the same direction. Laura Lindsay, senior communications director and travel expert for Skyscanner, said Canadian searches for U.S. travel were up 16 per cent between Jan. 1 and July 6 compared with the same period in 2025, with interest climbing by roughly 25 per cent in May and June this year. Although, she acknowledged the World Cup, held in 11 host cities across the country this summer, may have played a role.

The rebound, however, doesn’t necessarily signal a return to business as usual, particularly in light of Trump’s latest tariff escalation. While some Canadians are still willing to head south, many are doing so on different terms than they once did, choosing destinations more selectively, travelling with a clearer purpose and limiting how much time and money they spend in the U.S.

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Ash Mahendran, a 26-year-old live-events worker from Pickering, Ont., said he has not ruled out travelling to the U.S., but is selective about where he goes. He travelled to Los Angeles in May and San Francisco last November to see concerts. “I’m cautious of what’s going on in the States,” he said. “It’s why I only go to California due to it being a blue state.”

Despite those concerns, Mahendran said both trips felt routine. He described the border crossings as uneventful and is already saving for another visit.

Mahendran’s preference for California mirrors what CAA is seeing among some travellers. “We see some members going out to California,” said Patricia Marques, managing director of retail and call centre sales and operations at CAA. “With California being a blue state, people are more inclined to travel there.”

That selectivity is one reason the broader recovery remains uneven. Jackie Friedman, president of London, Ont.-based host agency Nexion Canada Travel Group, said some Canadian travellers are showing renewed interest while others continue to approach U.S. trips cautiously.

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“Our Canadian advisers continue to report that some clients remain hesitant about travelling to or through the United States,” Friedman said. “While there are signs that confidence is slowly improving in certain segments, the rebound has been gradual rather than widespread.”

When Canadians head south, they’re increasingly doing so with a specific reason in mind.

“Purpose-driven travel continues to perform the best,” Friedman said. “Cruises departing from U.S. ports, visits with friends and family, theme park vacations and special-event travel tend to be more resilient because travellers have a specific reason for making the trip.”

Marques added demand has held steadier around traditional cruise gateways such as Port Canaveral, typically reached through Orlando and Fort Lauderdale.

“The majority of our members that are going to the United States are doing so because they’re doing cruises,” she said.

A longer-term shift in travel habits

Canadians are not only reconsidering whether to visit the U.S., but also how far ahead they book and what those trips look like. Friedman said many Canadians are booking closer to departure, placing greater emphasis on flexibility and weighing multiple factors before deciding whether to head south. “Rather than one single issue, it’s often the combination of factors that influences a traveller’s decision to go,” she said.

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Marques said those shifting priorities are changing the shape of U.S. vacations themselves. Cruise passengers, for example, are treating Florida as a departure point rather than part of the holiday.

“Traditionally, we would have seen members spend a week or a few days exploring those destinations before going on the cruises, and they’re not doing that as much. It’s basically a transfer.”

Other travellers are still looking beyond the U.S. altogether. With Disney World in Florida becoming increasingly expensive for Canadians, Marques said some families are finding that trips to Tokyo Disney Resort or Disneyland Paris can compare favourably in terms of overall cost while also allowing them to bypass the U.S.

She said CAA is also continuing to see growth in longer winter stays in Portugal, Spain, Italy and the Caribbean among travellers who might once have defaulted to Florida or Arizona.

Not every traveller, however, is changing course. Cher Kornaker, a retired London, Ont.-area resident, said she and her husband have continued their annual winter stay in Central Florida from November through April.

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“We had so many Americans apologizing to us for what’s been happening to Canada with their current leadership and asking if we’d be back again when we left,” she said of their most recent visit. Otherwise, she said the trip felt much like previous years, with no notable changes to her experience at the border.

Marques expects the broader shift in travel habits to continue. “I think a lot of Canadians are holding on for the long haul while Trump is president,” she said. “Canadians are sitting back and waiting to see if the relationship changes with whoever follows.”

CAA is already handling bookings for trips as far out as 2029, giving the agency an early look at Canadians’ longer-term travel plans. So far, Marques says, those bookings do not suggest a full return to previous U.S. travel habits. 

“There’s no indication in our advance bookings that anything is changing.” 

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