More than a year into Donald Trump’s second U.S. presidency, it appears Canadians are still wary of travel to the country next door.
Statistics Canada released numbers this week about Canadians making trips to the U.S..
The number of Canadians returning from trips to the U.S. fell 22 per cent in January 2026 compared with January 2025, which marks 13 straight year-over-year decline.
One state that may be disproportionately affected by a drop in tourism is Maine, a New Brunswick neighbour.
The state, which bills itself as “Vacationland,” has historically been a tourist destination for Maritimers and Quebecers, and a good deal of the state’s economy relies on it.
Maine became increasingly dependent on Canadian tourism over the last 30 years or more, said Stefano Tijerina, a lecturer in management at the University of Maine’s business school.
“The hotels that were built just in the area where I live here in Bangor, Maine, they were created and then built with the strategy of filling those rooms with Canadians that would be attracted to the mall, to the retail space to and then of course to use this as a destination hub for their own other coastal tourist destinations.”
Everal Eaton, the executive director of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, said tourism numbers for that area won’t be available until April, but he is expecting a drop.
“I think every part of the state has some touch towards tourism and visitation,” Eaton said.
“Any change like that does does have an effect.”
Tijerina said the drop in Canadian tourists is visible.
Fewer Canadians are travelling south of the border, and it’s having major repercussions for Maine’s tourism industry.
“I ride the highway going to Portland, and normally you would see licence plate after licence plate from Canadians,” Tijerina. “And I do not see those vehicles on the road much anymore.
“You go to the coast, the same thing. Bars have seats. Last summer, you could find a table, you didn’t have to queue up on a restaurant because the consumer numbers had dropped tremendously.”
Eaton said Bar Harbor usually gets more domestic tourists than Canadian ones, but there was still a noticeable drop in traffic.
This could be attributed in part to a rainy start to summer, and to a government shutdown that affected neighbouring Acadia National Park, he said, but strained international relationships “also came into play.”
“I think some of our busier times still stayed a little bit busier. But … I’d say the lulls between the peaks were a little bit lower than they had been in the past.”
Chellie Pingree represents a Maine congressional district that includes tourism hotspots populalr with Canadians, including Portland, Old Orchard Beach and Kittery.
She said Maine had a 27 per cent drop in border crossings, which meant about one million fewer people visiting the state.
“Just to put it in perspective, our state has 1.5 million people,” Pingree said.
“So to have that many less people coming across the border, whether it’s Canadian tourists or people who come for shopping or family visits, it’s really been doing damage to our state.”
Despite the noticeable drop in tourists, Tijerina said that so far the tourism industry has avoided mass layoffs and job cuts.
The hope is that last summer was a one-off blip, he said, but this summer will be crucial.
“it will be very revealing at the end of this summer to see whether or not the Canadian tourists will come back to Maine,” Tijerina said.
“If they don’t, then I would imagine that the industry would begin to of course reduce its costs, and costs usually are cut by cutting personnel.”
Several policies implemented by the Trump administration have strained relations between the U.S. and Canada and affected pocketbooks on both sides of the border.
While Trump has shown little desire to improve the relationship, Pingree said Republicans she speaks with are growing tired of the president’s views on Canada.
“If you talk to any Republican in a border state, they know how damaging this has been,” said Pingree, who is a Democrat.
“They’re they’re experiencing the same border-crossing problems. They are dealing with many of the same problems. Many of them just don’t like to fight back with the president.”
While Republicans may privately be criticizing the president, Tijerina doesn’t think there will be any significant reversal from the Trump administration.
“I would say that the Trump administration is not going to move the needle and, and they’re going to stick to their set trajectory. I don’t think that they worry a lot about what happens to Maine.”
