Canadians Have Cooled on US Travel Mother Jones [Video]

At a recent event in Orlando, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis brushed off reports that Canadians are increasingly not visiting the Sunshine State and pointed to his recent family trip to Legoland as evidence. “I’d say, like, 80 percent of them were Canadians,” DeSantis said, according to Orlando Weekly. “So, we’re going to continue to be a destination.”

Canadians are the largest proportion—nearly 28 percent—of international travelers visiting Florida and, according to the Canadian embassy, they also comprise the largest number of international visitors for the entire United States. But that comfortable relationship may be taking a turn. New tourism numbers for the first quarter of 2025 released by Visit Florida, a marketing organization that promotes tourism, show a dip in Canadian visitors of 3.4 percent. 

Growing tensions between Canada and the US due to tariffs and rhetoric from the Trump administration about adopting Canada as the “51st state”have contributed to a shift in travel patterns between the two neighbors. Flights from …