A New Brunswick tour operator has scrapped all U.S. trips from its schedule, citing dwindling interest among travellers who say they are deterred by the political climate and exchange rates.
Phyllis LeBlanc, owner of PT Tours, said her company runs monthly trips to the United States, including popular shopping excursions in November and bus tours to destinations like Boston and Washington D.C.
This year those trips have been called off.
“One of the main reasons is, they don’t trust Trump,” LeBlanc said. “They say, ‘We don’t know what can happen every day.”
Leblanc said the unfavourable exchange rate is also discouraging travellers.
“When you go by the border and you’re paying almost 48 to 50 cents more on the dollar, it’s quite a lot,” LeBlanc said.
PT Tours often needs two buses to accommodate demand for cross-border shopping trips. LeBlanc said men would go hunting while their partners spend a weekend shopping in some of their more popular tour packages – like those around Thanksgiving.
“Everybody was buying turkeys because it was cheap,” she said. “But now it’s not worth it.”
With demand for U.S. travel plummeting, LeBlanc is focusing on Canadian destinations.
“For instance, to Magdalen Islands and Iles-de-la-Madeleine, we already have two buses booked and we’re planning to add a third one,” she said. “And for shopping, instead of going to the States, we’re going to Montreal.”
LeBlanc said she was able to cancel reservations in advance without penalties, so the shift hasn’t caused financial strain.
“The people are just not interested,” LeBlanc said. “So there’s no use keeping those trips going.”
She said the shift to domestic travel may be long-term as more people make a habit of supporting Canadian businesses.
“You can buy local products, and once you start buying local, you’re not going to change your mind,” she said.
The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) reports, while booked trips to the U.S. are still going ahead, new bookings have slowed down dramatically.
“Overall, we’re seeing about 10 per cent less booking to U.S. destinations that would’ve previous times of the year,” said Julia Kent, CAA Spokesperson.
“Most people we expect are not wanting to take the loss of cancelling a previous booked trip or tour.”
While CAA is not seeing any negative impacts yet, the company is anticipating its popular cruises will not garner as much interest.
“Our 2025 cruise schedule will be more greatly impacted by the U.S.-Canadian situation simply because a lot more people haven’t booked this trip and we expect it will be lower,” said Kent.
Kent says CAA is currently promoting travelling within Canada.
“A lot of Canadians are apprehensive about going to the United States, even if they don’t have a flight booked or tour booked, or cruise booked. They’re apprehensive about being there because it’s the feeling that they’re not welcome and there are a lot of things looming with policies that might come into effect,” she said.
While it has not happened yet, Kent says if more travellers shift away from trips to the U.S., and the demand drops, it may reduce or even call of new U.S. travel offerings.
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