A top tourism official in Western New York says he is concerned about a dip in visitors from Canada after recent data revealed that the number of cross-border visits from Canadians dropped significantly in February amid an ongoing trade war.
www.ctvnews.ca
Speaking to CP24.com on Monday, Patrick Kaler, president and CEO of Visit Buffalo Niagara, said cross-border travel from northern neighbours dropped 14 per cent year-over-year in February.
“I am hearing anecdotally from our hotels, our attractions, that they are seeing a downturn in their overall Canadian visitation,” he said.
He said he fears when the March border data comes in, it will show a similar trend.
“This is a big concern for us,” Kaler said.
“Obviously the talk of tariffs have changed a lot of the overall Canadian sentiment towards the United States and especially towards travel.”
Kaler said the region typically depends on Canadians for about 35 to 40 per cent of its total tourism.
“It’s very important. It’s beyond just the tax base that it creates, but it creates jobs,” he said.
“To see that pipeline cut off from us… it’s going to mean some hard decisions for some of our businesses probably if we’re not able to replace those visitors from other destinations within the United States.”
Amid the trade dispute, Kaler added that a recent advertising campaign geared at attracting Canadian travellers to the region was also suspended.
“Unfortunately, when the tariff talk started in early February, the comments on social media were very strong and so we decided to take it (the advertising campaign) down,” he said.
“We can appreciate the sentiment of the Canadian travellers and we don’t want to be disrespectful of how they’re feeling towards the United States at this point and go in with kind of maybe a tone-deaf message.”
Canadians appear to be showing declining interest in travelling across the border amid a trade war triggered by U.S. President Donald Trump earlier this year.