Vancouver, British Columbia (AP) – Diana and Rick Bellamy initially planned to make a Caribbean cruise in Houston before going to Laurel, Mississippi, to visit the house of one of their favorite HGTV shows, “hometown”.
The Calgary couple abandoned these plans and was passed on vacation last month along the Pacific Coast of Mexico, pushed back by the trade war of the American president Donald Trump with Canada, the insults he launched in their country of origin and the stories on American border agents excavating the phones of people and holding foreigners for minor reasons.
She found ironic that she felt more comfortable traveling to Mexico than the United States
Find out more: American detention of European and Canadian tourists creates a fear of traveling to America
“I never thought I would hear myself say that,” said Diane Bellamy.
Trump’s attacks on Canada’s economy and threats to make the 51st state have exasperated Canadians, who cancel trips to the United States in large numbers. They also seem to have also reversed the account of Canada’s legislative elections on Monday, with the Liberal Party of Prime Minister Mark Carney after dragging far in the polls just a few months ago.
Abrupt drop
The United States has obtained more visitors to Canada each year than any other country, according to the US Travel Association, a commercial group of industry, which said that the 20.4 million visits to Canada last year generated $ 20.5 billion in spending.
But there has been a great drop in foreigners going to the United States since Trump took office, and Canadians are no exception. There were more than 910,000 passages on board in less of Canada in the United States last month than in March 2024 – a drop of more than 22% – according to customs data and the protection of US borders. An Air Canada spokesperson, on the other hand, said that Canada-US flight reservations for April to September are about 10%.
Trump on Wednesday dismissed the drop in tourism in the United States, saying: “There is a little nationalism there, I suppose, perhaps. This is not a big problem.”
Travelers
Since Trump began his second term, there have been reports well published on tourists arrested at the American border crossings and detained for weeks in immigration holding establishments before being authorized to return home at their expense.
On March 3, Canadian Jasmine Mooney, actor and entrepreneur on an American work visa, was detained by American border agents in San Diego. She was released after 12 days of detention.
Before the release of Mooney, the British Prime Minister of British Columbia, David Eby, expressed his concern, saying: “This certainly reinforces the anxiety that … many Canadians have on our relationship with the United States at the moment, and the unpredictability of this administration and its actions.”
Find out more: Carney deplores Canada’s lost friendship with us in town that housed the Americans after September 11
The Canadian Association of University Teachers, which represents professors and staff of Canadian universities, warned its members against non-essential travel in the United States due to the “political landscape” under Trump and Canadian reports encountering difficulties crossing the border.
The academics who have expressed negative views of the Trump administration should be particularly cautious about traveling to the United States, the group said.
“People are afraid of crossing the border. I don’t know what the Americans think, are they frankly. Are they so unconscious? ” said the former Prime Minister of Quebec, Jean Charest, who has a family in Florida.
Mike Sauer, who heads a community police center in Vancouver, said that he and his partner had no interest in going to the United States due to Trump’s policy and border fears. One of Sauer’s concerns is that if a border guard was to check his mobile phone, the goalkeeper could see his past purchases of marijuana, who is legal to buy in Canada and about half of the 50 states but is still illegal under the American federal law.
“States have a different vision of drugs. They could certainly watch my phone and see that I am 420-friendly,” he said, which means that it is suitable for marijuana. “I think it depends in a way on what the border guard would have a problem with this and those would not do.”
Dietra Wilson, 32, said that when she was younger, she often visited Detroit, who is right in front of Windsor, Ontario, where she and her husband, Ben, have a second -hand shop. However, she has not visited much in recent years, and she said she had heard of people’s concerns about the crossing of the border since Trump returned to the White House.
“It’s worrying,” she said.
Ben Wilson, 37, also has scruples to try to cross.
“Why would I like?” He said. “Whatever the prices, if I will be stopped on the border for my phone or something that someone sent me a text, why go?”
Concerns about the industry
The decrease in Canadian tourism in the United States has led California Governor Gavin Newsom, a frequent Trump target, to announce an advertising campaign this month intended to attract Canadians to its state, citing a 12% decrease in annual shift in February.
McKenzie McMillan, consultant with a Vancouver-based travel agency, the travel group, said that company’s reservations in the United States have dried up. “We have seen an almost total collapse of American affairs,” he said. “Probably about a 90% drop since February.”
Lesley Keyter, CEO and founder of Travel Lady Agency in Calgary, said that she had seen people lose money to cancel their American trips.
“Even if they go on a Caribbean cruise, they don’t want to go down to Fort Lauderdale to get on the cruise ship,” she said.
Gillies reported in Toronto. The journalist of Associated Press, Corey Williams, in Windsor, Ontario, contributed to this report.
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