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Canada is the number one source of tourists to the United States, and in the past couple of days I have seen several articles in Canadian media about a tourist backlash against Mr. Trump’s declared intention to squeeze Canada’s economy to convince it to be annexed by the United States or sign over rare mineral rights or whatever the heck he’s after.
I also saw a long interview with a senior Canadian politician just back from the White House where the Canadian delegation was advised by several close advisors to Trump to “take all of this very seriously.” The politician characterized Trump’s threats as a “shakedown” and a “betrayal,” a view that polling tells us is widely held in Canada.
News from the travel sector:
Air Canada is reacting to a 40% year-over-year decline in reservations to American “sun destinations” by cancelling some upcoming flights to Florida, Texas and California
WestJet (Canada’s second-largest airline) is assessing what to to about a 25% drop in reservations to the United States
A small tour operator who does things like organize golf vacations in the southern USA for large groups of Canadians is reporting cancellations worth “hundreds of thousands” of dollars
anecdotal reports from individual Canadian travellers who changed or cancelled their plans, including one who who cancelled knowing full well she would lose her deposit
I have no idea whether Canadian stays in American Airbnb’s are a significant market segment – maybe all Canadians visiting the USA stay in hotels or time shares or (like my wife) modest little Florida condos inherited from family. My question in this thread, are any of the hosts on this forum with Airbnb properties in the USA seeing a drop-off, and are hosts with properties that could serve as a backup to Canadians abandoning the USA (Mexico, St. Lucia) seeing an uptick from Canadian inquiries/reservations?
I’ve never had lots of Canadian guests so if this were a problem, it probably (hopefully!) wouldn’t affect me. But thanks for pointing this out, @Spark - I look forward to a lively discussion about this.
I don’t see many, if any, Canadians in my area and this time of year is always slow for me. I have seen some postings encouraging Americans to boycott AirBnb’s in general due to the founder being a Trump supporter. I do wonder if we will see any results from that or not.
If people are going to boycott something, they really should get their stories straight. I’ve seen posts saying Gebbia is the CEO, which he is not, and other misinformation.
It isn’t the fact that he is a founder that has any relevance- plenty of businesses have founders who are either long dead or no longer involved.
It’s that he currently sits on the board of directors and is the head of Airbnb.org. that is the issue.
We have virtually no bookings, maybe because of backlash or boycott. Our listing shows well on incognito search within about 8 miles. The year has started very slowly, and I’m looking into ltr and other income streams. We have not had many Canadian guests.
We are near Los Angeles and have a preponderance of fairly local guests, from greater Los Angeles, Bay Area, San Diego etc. We have not had many international guests since before covid.
When I started this thread I cited reports in Canadian media – today and yesterday it’s the New York Times:
Normally Times stories are behind a paywall, but as a subscriber I’m supposed to be able to “unlock” and share a couple of articles a week. I’ve never tried sharing an unlocked link on a group-chat forum before… Please let me know if you tried and weren’t able to get in.
A miserable old man, Dumph has a long record of having everything he touches turn to shit. Now he has the power to make all of our lives miserable too…
Europe is next.
American media is understating the fury overseas:
If you cater to European guests and want to take a pulse of the marketplace, you might try reading The Independent, The Guardian, The Economist, the English-language der Spiegel or le Monde – or news media from pretty well any NATO country which suffered casualties after following the U.S.A. to war against al Qaeda in Afghanistan (and, by the way, did not retroactively ask America for perpetual rare-earth mineral royalties in exchange).
Most Americans are not aware that after Japan bombed Canada’s best friend at Pearl Harbor in 1941, Canada declared war on the Empire of Japan 24 hours before America did.
Most Canadians are aware of that fact.
It’s not just the “current situation” – it’s the “current situation” after more than a century of good-faith, loyal friendship.
In normal times if Canadians who had a beef something America did proposed a travel boycott, national political leaders would be calling for cooler heads. Today it is actually the Prime Minister of Canada who is urging Canadians to avoid travel to the USA. North America hasn’t seen anything like this since 1812
