‘A very emotional thing’: U.S. resort owners try to win back Canadians

California's Golden Gate Bridge. (Pexels)

Canada’s airports were bustling in April, but fewer passengers were flying to the United States, a sign that efforts by American destinations to win back Canadian tourists may be falling flat.

A new Statistics Canada report found that for the third month in a row, the number of travellers screened to fly from Canada to the U.S. dropped compared to the same time last year. Meanwhile, traffic was up for both domestic and international travel.

Canadian airlines appear to be pivoting in response. Air Canada recently announced its “largest winter expansion,” with 13 new routes and 16 per cent more seat capacity to Latin America. The carrier is now offering more than 55 daily flights and over 80,000 weekly seats to the region.

WestJet says it’s adjusting, too.

“In response to shifting demand, WestJet did recently reallocate aircraft from some routes between Canada and the U.S. toward connectivity and frequency within Canada, internationally between Canada and Europe, and between Canada and popular sun destinations,” the airline said in a written statement to CTVNews.ca.

“WestJet remains engaged with industry partners in conversations focused on lessening long-term impacts on travel and tourism — industries that we know rely on the sustained confidence and movement of people on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border.”

‘California Loves Canada’

In an effort to stifle the drop in visitors, some U.S. states have rolled out targeted campaigns aimed specifically at Canadians.

Visit California, a nonprofit corporation formed to market California as a desirable tourism destination, teamed up with Expedia to launch the ‘California Loves Canada’ campaign in May. Organizers say it’s been “resonating with Canadians.”

“As of May 31, Canadian travellers have booked rooms at 1,740 California hotels that are offering exclusive deals for Canadians,” Caroline Beteta, president and CEO of Visit California, told CTVNews.ca in an emailed response. “With most bookings set for travel this summer, we anticipate seeing a real uptick in Canadian arrivals as the year plays out.”

Beteta says the campaign is driven by California-based industry partners offering special discounts to Canadians, adding the feedback has been positive. According to Beteta, VisitCalifornia.com saw traffic increase by more than five per cent in May, with engagement up nearly 15 per cent.

“Click-through rates from organic search are a whopping 2,800 per cent higher than what we typically see,” she added.

Atlantic Canada seeing tourism spike

Despite these efforts, one travel agent told CTVNews.ca that a portion of the market is still hesitant about travelling to the U.S., due to concerns about the border, politics, or just the general vibe.

Jason Sarracini, founder and CEO of Landsby, a Canadian domestic travel website, says there may be some cross-border traffic in upstate New York, but his company isn’t “seeing anything meaningful.” However, Sarracini did say one spot within Canada is getting lots of attention.

“Atlantic Canada is the one that’s really stood out this year,” Sarracini said. “It’s that destination, which is pretty intimate, gives you a really good sense of the people and the flavour, and is not as expensive as the West Coast and the Rockies in the summer.”

• Canada’s domestic tourism industry could net billions due to U.S. trade war: report

Sarracini also stressed the growing importance of Indigenous tourism, which he says is attracting more interest from both Canadian and American travellers.

“(Americans) don’t necessarily want it to be their entire trip, but they do want components of that educational side, especially those who have maybe been to Canada before,” he said.

Calling for accessible Canadian travel

Julie Smigadis, owner of Travel Our World agency, says her U.S.-bound bookings have slowed in recent months, with some would-be clients choosing to cancel outright.

“I had a large anniversary trip to Disney cancelled,” she said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. “It was an (LGBTQ2S+) couple and they just felt very unsafe and kind of not very welcome. They ended up rebooking into Mexico, even though they lost a little bit of money on the file.”

Instead, Smigadis says more of her clients are opting to explore Canada, especially destinations like Banff, Alta., Vancouver, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

But affordability is a challenge, even for domestic trips.

“The pricing and the availability is so crazy,” Smigadis said. “It’s unfortunate because, especially as a travel agency, I do want to show off this gorgeous country of ours and especially in this moment where we come together as Canadians.”

She says greater cooperation between governments, airlines and hotels is needed to make Canadian travel more accessible.

• Fewer Americans visiting Canada, tourism operators say they’re still welcome

“I wish the Canadian companies, Canadian airlines, and Canadian hotels would incentivize Canadians to stay within Canada,” she said. “There has to be some way for us to make it more accessible — for our dollars to be used here as opposed to going abroad.”

Data from Expedia supports the broader trend. According to the company’s first-quarter earnings call, Canada’s inbound travel to the U.S. was down nearly 30 per cent in the first quarter.

“While we’ve been seeing recent fluctuations in U.S. search activities, Canadians are still eager to travel and have been rediscovering all the beauty Canada has to offer,” said Melanie Fish, head of Expedia Group brands public relations in the company’s Summer Travel Outlook.

‘This is a very emotional thing’

Some American tourism operators say they’re feeling the downturn directly.

“This isn’t something you solve with a few dollars off. This is a very emotional thing,” said Paul Dame, owner of Bluff Point Golf Resort in Plattsburgh, N.Y., in a video interview with CTVNews.ca. “The stuff that’s being said is just downright not nice to Canadians, and unfortunately, that has definitely put a damper on our business.”

Dame’s resort, just an hour south of Montreal, typically relies on Canadian visitors. But those numbers are down sharply this year.

“The start of the season, April and May, we were 30 per cent behind last year,” Dame said. “Lodging reservations were 22 per cent down … I would say about 25 per cent of our regular guests have decided not to return.”

He said he’s personally reached out to dozens of long-time customers, many of whom have visited for more than a decade.

“They said, ‘We love you, we love Bluff Point, but we’re not going to be coming back to the United States this year,’” he said. “That was 49 out of about 130 groups.”

The resort is still seeing some large group bookings go through, but individual golfers and day trippers have dropped off drastically.

“We would usually see 25 to 30 cars a day in the parking lot. Now we’re seeing one, maybe two,” Dame said, adding the daily golfer is second-guessing a trip to the U.S.

Despite the challenges, Dame said he’s working on a new outreach video to reconnect with Canadians.

“I hope that we at least start to move in the right direction, so that we can rebuild the greatest cross-border relationship anywhere in the world,” he said. “We’ve been friends and partners for decades … it would be great for both sides to just move forward, make amends, and hopefully continue a friendship that was a long time made.”