Due to the Trump Administration's tariffs, his comments about making Canada the "51st state," and just plain nationalism, Canadian tourism into the U.S. and border states like Minnesota has steadily declined.
"It's quite a significant decline," says Canadian Consul General in Minneapolis, Beth Richardson.
The largest contingent of international visitors to Minnesota hails from Canada and Richardson says the declining tourism numbers can't be ignored.
"Travel by road into the United States is down by about a third, year-on-year since February," she says. "Canadians coming to the U.S. by air is down about 20%. Canadians coming through the Pembina Crossing is down 40%."
The Pembina-Emerson border crossing is along the North Dakota border with Canada, and is the main crossing between the U.S. and Winnipeg.
The reasons, says Richardson, are pretty simple.
"Canadians are deeply disappointed and troubled by the unjustified imposition of tariffs on Canada, particularly those on national security grounds," she told WCCO. "Tariffs are going to hurt U.S. workers and consumers as well. And then the talk of annexation has been very troubling to Canadians."
She says the decrease is being felt all across the state, not just along the border. Richardson didn't have specific numbers, but says border cities are being hurt the most.
"Any significantly sized city across the border, well even smaller cities like Fort Francis and International Falls where people kind of lead a binational lifestyle, they're coming back and forth quite a bit," Richardson explains. "These are all places that are being impacted by the shift in Canada-U.S. relations in this moment."
The U.S. gets more visitors from Canada each year than from any other country, according to the U.S. Travel Association, an industry trade group, which said the 20.4 million visits from Canada last year generated $20.5 billion in spending. More than half of Minnesota's international tourists hail from Canada.
There were more than 910,000 fewer land border crossings from Canada into the U.S. in March of 2025, compared to March of 2024 — a more than 22% drop — according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection data. An Air Canada spokesman, meanwhile, said Canada-U.S. flight bookings for April through September are down about 10%.
Trump brushed aside the decline in tourism to the United States, saying, “There’s a little nationalism there I guess, perhaps. It’s not a big deal."