Canadians Traveling to the USA in 2025

[Reepicheep]

I just discovered the website for "Visit Florida", which is "the state’s official destination marketing organization". They publish tourism statistics on a quarterly, not monthly basis. Their statistics are in agreement with the statistics produced by Stats Canada.

Below are the year over year increases or decreases in the number of Canadian tourists visiting Florida for the last six quarters (Q1 is Jan/Feb/Mar, etc.):

+5.7% - 2024 Q1
+4.4% - 2024 Q2
+5.0% - 2024 Q3
+6.3% - 2024 Q4

-16.9% - 2025 Q1
-20.0% - 2025 Q2

"That's not much of a boycott in my books." - Governor Desantis

https://www.visitflorida.org/resources/research/

 

[Reepicheep]

I've been following tourism statistics (Canadian visits to the US) very closely since That Man started making his offensive comments about Canada. I could post links to articles about how the Canadian boycott is affecting each individual state (especially border states), but since this is a Disney forum, I'll limit my comments to Florida, California, and the overall statistics for the entire United States.

In my previous post, I posted statistics specific to Florida. I just found the website for "Visit California", which gives the same statistics for California.

Below are the year-over-year increases or decreases in the number of Canadian tourists visiting California each month since October 2024:

+4% - Oct, 2024
-4% - Nov
-3% - Dec
-11% - Jan, 2025
-12% - Feb
-15% - Mar
-15% - Apr
-20% - May
-25% - June

The trend is undeniable.

At the federal level, the US government is claiming that relations between Canada and the US are hunky-dory (now that I'm a 67-year-old old codger, I figure I should start using old codger expressions, dagnammit). The state governors (other than Desantis of Florida, who apparently drank a double dose of the Kool-Aid and is now a worshiper of That Man) all recognize the seriousness of the problem and are basically begging for the return of Canadian tourists.

https://industry.visitcalifornia.com/research/reports/canada-market-profile

 

[ilovetotravel1977]

Wow! You are really into these stats!

 

[dis_guy]

I've been following tourism statistics (Canadian visits to the US) very closely since That Man started making his offensive comments about Canada. I could post links to articles about how the Canadian boycott is affecting each individual state (especially border states), but since this is a Disney forum, I'll limit my comments to Florida, California, and the overall statistics for the entire United States.

In my previous post, I posted statistics specific to Florida. I just found the website for "Visit California", which gives the same statistics for California.

Below are the year-over-year increases or decreases in the number of Canadian tourists visiting California each month since October 2024:

+4% - Oct, 2024
-4% - Nov
-3% - Dec
-11% - Jan, 2025
-12% - Feb
-15% - Mar
-15% - Apr
-20% - May
-25% - June

The trend is undeniable.

At the federal level, the US government is claiming that relations between Canada and the US are hunky-dory (now that I'm a 67-year-old old codger, I figure I should start using old codger expressions, dagnammit). The state governors (other than Desantis of Florida, who apparently drank a double dose of the Kool-Aid and is now a worshiper of That Man) all recognize the seriousness of the problem and are basically begging for the return of Canadian tourists.

https://industry.visitcalifornia.com/research/reports/canada-market-profile

Wow and I’m assuming that those percentages are for a smaller and smaller total as time goes on. Looks like compound interest but in reverse.

 

[asc]

I wish the drop was larger. But even stats and facts won't change anything IMO.

 

[ottawamom]

Exactly, one in charge would actually have to believe in statistics and logic and reason...

 

[Frwinkley]

Orange Foolius would just fire your statistician...that's how we roll down here.

 

[Reepicheep]

I wish the drop was larger. But even stats and facts won't change anything IMO.

Regarding Florida, the key development will be if Canadian snowbirds fail to return to Florida in late 2025 / early 2026. All the reports I have read indicate that not only are many snowbirds saying they won't return, they have put their properties up for sale.

I suspect the money a typical Canadian tourist family spends during a one-week trip to (say) Disney World is insignificant compared to the money a wealthy snowbird couple spends during a 4-month winter stay in (say) Fort Lauderdale.

Below are a couple of short TV news reports about the financial impact that is already being felt by the snowbird boycott. Many communities in Florida will be in deep financial trouble if a significant snowbird boycott materializes over the winter.

Florida tourism officials say stark decline in Canadians visiting since winter

Canadians exiting Florida and businesses feeling the exodus

 

[asc]

I hope you are right.

 

[C.Witch]

Whatever Governor Kitten Heels thinks of the drop - we had multiple folks comment on the lack of Canadians and the financial impact.

The most in-depth conversation we had was with our Lyft driver, who was working for Lyft because her catering company had lost several contracts for conferences, originally booked by Canadian companies.

 

[asc]

Another unfortunate sign. I don't have anything to hide but that does not mean I don't have anything they won't like. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/us-canada-device-searches-1.7619944

 

[ronandannette]

Another unfortunate sign. I don't have anything to hide but that does not mean I don't have anything they won't like. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/us-canada-device-searches-1.7619944

How exactly does this work? Will they just literally scroll your device until they don’t feel like doing it anymore? Go through your email in-and-out boxes, read your texts, look at your apps and browsing history, look through the file folders, read the documents/PDF’s? Couldn’t that literally take hours per person? Is it just happening at land crossings or at airports too?

We’re flying in a few weeks and I need to know what kind of time to allow for this nonsense.

 

[asc]

It really depends and how cooperative you are as I read and if you have anything encrypted on your phone. I'm sure they have tools that can connect and scan it and possibly just image the entire phone and search it after the fact. Who knows though.

 

[Reepicheep]

It really depends and how cooperative you are as I read and if you have anything encrypted on your phone...

It appears certain classes of people (for example, scientists, journalists, etc.) that the US government perceives to have a negative opinion of That Man are more likely to be subjected to special interviews and device searches.

I know a person who is one of Canada's senior medical researchers. The last time I talked to him (around 6 weeks ago) he said he was scheduled to go to the US to present a paper at a medical conference. On the recommendation of his colleagues, he had bought a new phone and ipad which he would carry when entering the US, rather than take his regular phone and devices.

Needless to say, he wasn't pleased when That Man fired numerous senior medical people, and replaced them with incompetents (a recent example: yesterday an anti-vaxxer with no medical experience or training whatsoever took over leadership of the CDC).

My acquaintance told me he thought it was possible that he may be denied entry to the US because his paper made statements that go against current US policy (it is astonishing to think that, currently in the US, being in favour of vaccinations can cause medical professionals to lose their jobs). I won't be surprised if, sometime in the future, all people entering the US will have to sign a document acknowledging that bacteria and viruses don't cause disease, and instead declare that all disease is caused by evil demons entering people's noses when they sneeze.

 

[ottawamom]

Your post scared me, to think that that is the state of things in the US and it also made me laugh. Your last line about the evil demons... Sometimes we need to be able to use more than one of the like options.

 

[Silvermist999]

How exactly does this work? Will they just literally scroll your device until they don’t feel like doing it anymore? Go through your email in-and-out boxes, read your texts, look at your apps and browsing history, look through the file folders, read the documents/PDF’s? Couldn’t that literally take hours per person? Is it just happening at land crossings or at airports too?

We’re flying in a few weeks and I need to know what kind of time to allow for this nonsense.

We flew to MCO in July and our devices were not checked. Our purpose of being there was leisure/family vacation, so maybe if we were there for other reasons, it might be different but I doubt it. Nobody we know of has been checked while flying into the US since the new administration. The only thing my husband and I did was bring only our personal devices, left our work phones at home (as we should, anyways).

 

[Reepicheep]

...made me laugh. Your last line about the evil demons...

I'm glad you appreciate my sense of humour, since most members of my family don't.

Before writing the demon joke, I attempted to write a more elaborate joke about how That Man did a post on Truth Social, where he ridiculed Canadians because we believe in "microscopic people called germans who invade human bodies and cause disease", but the joke was kind of laboured, and I couldn't quite pull it off.