Nearly half a million fewer travellers crossed the land border from Canada to the U.S. last month, a drop of more than 17%.
Data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said the number of travellers entering the U.S. in a passenger vehicle dropped from 2,696,512 in February 2024 to 2,223,408 last month. The latter figure is the lowest it’s been since April 2022, according to CBP data.
It’s yet another sign that Canadians are taking the “Buy Canada” lesson to heart and avoiding trips to the States.
The U.S. border patrol numbers differ from Statistics Canada, which said last week that auto traffic from Canada to the U.S. had dropped by 23% in February when compared to the same month in 2024. StatsCan said air travel from Canada to the States fell13.1% in February.
Whether you look at Canadian or U.S. figures, the reduced flow of Canadians into the U.S. is a startling number that will definitely hurt airlines that fly Canadians to the States, as well as companies that run U.S. tours.
As reported by Open Jaw, Air Canada has trimmed flights to Florida, as well as other U.S. destinations. United Airlines has said it sees a “big drop” in trans-border pax numbers.
The U.S. Travel Association in January warned that a 10% drop in Canadian visitors would mean a loss of $2.1 billion in spending and the loss of 14,000 jobs. The latest numbers suggest those figures could be doubled.
Flight Centre Travel Group recently said leisure bookings to American cities have fallen off a cliff, dropping 40% in February when compared to the same month in 2024. The group also says one in five customers cancelled their trips to the U.S. over the past three months.
Len Saunders is an immigration lawyer in Blaine, Wash., a place where many Vancouver-area residents often shop. He told the CBC that the drop in Canadian visitors is obvious.
“This is like COVID all over again,” he said. “With the rhetoric coming from Trump — people just don’t want to come down here.
“We’re only two months into a four-year administration. If they keep this up there will be no Canadians coming down here — there will be a 100% boycott of this country,” Saunders said.