More than one million Canadians visited New York City last year, injecting hundreds of millions of dollars into the local economy. Now, they are canceling trips in droves.
School groups have called off end-of-semester trips. So have busloads of retirees, as well as newlyweds planning honeymoons, friends celebrating birthdays and a family from Quebec that had planned to visit twice this year.
Often, the reason cited is President Trump’s escalating hostility toward Canada and repeated threats to make it the 51st state, which has stirred sweeping pledges to boycott American goods and abandon over-the-border vacations to the United States.
The cancellations could inflict damage on the economy in the city, where Canadians spent an estimated $600 million in 2024, and hinder the tourism industry’s recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
The havoc could also extend statewide. Cities and towns along the border with Canada, for instance, rely on tourism from their northern neighbors who often make same-day shopping trips. Nearly four million Canadians visited New York State in 2023, according to the most recent data available from the state, and spent more than $1.7 billion.
“When you piss off a country and threaten to annex them, they are not going to want to travel here,” said Matt Levy, the owner of the New York City tour guide company, Spread Love Tours, whose business with Canadian groups is on pace to decline 50 percent this year.
More than a dozen high schools from Canada recently informed him that they were canceling their annual trips to the city, he said.
A tour operator in Ottawa, Travac Tours, expected to send 16 coach buses to New York City this year. But none of its customers — mostly retirees who tend to spend generously on restaurants, shopping and Broadway shows — have booked a seat since Mr. Trump imposed tariffs on Canada this month, and the company expects to cancel every trip.
“We love the American people, but we are so anti-America when it comes to finances,” Cindy Tobin, a manager at the company, said her clients have told her. “We are just not going to give them any money.”
Without a quick, amicable resolution, she said, the tourism boycott could extend into next year because many customers will soon start booking their vacations for 2026.
Since taking office in January, Mr. Trump has levied tariffs against Canada — long considered America’s closest ally — and described their shared border as an “artificial line.” Canadian leaders and citizens across the political spectrum have taken his remarks deadly seriously and used them as a rallying call.
Former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau explicitly urged Canadians to reconsider international trips. “Now is also the time to choose Canada,” he said.
Even though international tourists made up a small chunk of the estimated 64.3 million people who came to New York City in 2024 — there were 51.3 million domestic visitors — international visitors tend to outspend domestic ones. And among international tourists, only the British visit the city more than Canadians.
Last year, while international tourism to New York City had not yet returned to prepandemic levels, Canadian travelers had: About 16,000 more Canadians visited the city in 2024 than in 2019, despite a weak Canadian dollar.
But last month, compared with the same period in 2024, the number of Canadians flying into the three airports in and around the city fell 11 percent, according to airline passenger data collected by the federal government. Overall, the amount of monthly international air travelers to the area was the lowest since February 2023.
Vehicle traffic over the four international bridges that span the Niagara River near Buffalo and Niagara Falls fell nearly 14 percent in February, compared with the previous year, according to the agencies that operate them. To the east, traffic on the Thousand Islands Bridge dropped 19 percent in February.
The travel agency Flight Centre Travel Group Canada reported a 40 percent decline in leisure travel bookings to the United States in February, compared with the same month last year, as well as an increase in cancellations on previously booked trips.
In recent weeks, Canadians have been noticeably absent from the Ontario Bar, a Brooklyn dive devoted to all things Canada. Labatt Blue is on draft, Moosehead Canadian Lager is available in bottles and a selection of rye whiskies is behind the bar. The mood inside has been somber, said Andrew Benedict, a co-owner.
“They always ask for ketchup chips or comment on the Canadian beers,” he said, “and there’s less of that.”
Ben Renaud, who lives in Quebec, said that his family had planned to make two trips to New York City this year. One would have been this month to celebrate his mother’s 66th birthday, followed by another with his extended family this summer. Not now.
“I have a lot of nice memories in New York and wanted to share that with her,” said Mr. Renaud, 45, who now plans to visit other Canadian provinces and maybe Europe. But, he added, “the word in the country is that the U.S. cannot be treated as an ally and cannot be trusted.”
For New York City, its proximity to major Canadian cities like Toronto and Montreal have made it a popular destination for quick getaways, especially for bus tours. Operators have historically sent multiple buses to New York every week. But bookings have dried up.
In previous years, the operator Comfort Tour Canada drove buses with up to 150 people to the city for spring break. The cost of hotel rooms alone could reach $30,000 for the multiple-day trip. This year, one bus made the journey for spring break, with just 24 passengers.
“Our bookings have gone to zero or one a day,” said Al Qanun, the company’s owner. “It will hurt us, and it will hurt those hotels.”
Businesses and tourism officials in western New York are especially worried. The economies of cities and towns along the border with Ontario and Quebec are particularly integrated with Canada. Up to 20 percent of the tourists to Rochester are Canadian.
Many Canadians drive over the bridges connecting the two countries on day trips for shopping, dining and entertainment. On a recent weekend at the Fashion Outlets of Niagara Falls mall, Nancy Driscoll placed a shopping bag of new clothes into her car with Ontario plates.
She and her partner, Matthew Elliott, said they only drove into New York State, with a stop at the mall, to watch his son’s collegiate hockey game at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in the Finger Lakes region.
Mr. Elliott said that some of the other Canadian parents who had planned to travel to watch their children play had canceled their trips.
“The boycott is real, and it doesn’t matter what happens with tariffs now, it’s not going to be repaired,” Mr. Elliott said, adding: “He pushed too far.”
Alain Delaquérière contributed research.