- Canadians are canceling trips to the US over growing US-Canada tensions.
- US Airbnb host Robert Carlson tells BI a Canadian man canceled his $7,000 Palm Springs reservation.
- It comes as Trudeau told Canadians to reconsider travel to the US after Trump’s proposed tariffs.
Last week, Palm Springs Realtor Robert Carlson received a distressing message from a Canadian friend out of the blue. The 65-year-old retiree was returning to Vancouver and canceling all coming US travel for the year.
“I’m having real trouble sleeping here right now. I’m cutting my stay short and am going home to Canada,” he wrote in an email to Carlson.
The guest canceled a $7,000 booking at a 3-bedroom, 2-bathroom Airbnb property that Carlson manages. Carlson is now worried that the next booking, a Canadian couple, will cancel a five-month $17,000 stay at the same property.
Carlson said that Canadians make up a significant portion of Palm Springs’ population in the wintertime. He’s right: A study conducted by the Greater Palm Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau found that about 300,000 Canadians visited nearby Indio, California, in 2017, spending about $236.5 million. Now, residents of Palm Springs are worried that more cancellations are coming.
“Nobody seems to have any good answers [about] what to do or to say to calm the situation,” Carlson told Business Insider on Friday.
Canadians are canceling US trips amid increased tensions
The cancellation comes after outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told Canadian citizens to reconsider travel to the US amid growing tensions between the two countries.
Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has called the 158-year-old nation the “51st State” and proposed several tariffs. This week, he said there would be 50% tariffs on aluminum and steel imports, although those are seemingly delayed.
Some Canadians are responding. In February, the number of Canadians driving to the US fell 23% compared to last year, according to Statistics Canada, and was the second consecutive monthly decline.
A slowdown in Canadian visitors could have a major economic impact in the US. The US Travel Association projected last month that a 10% decline in Canadian travel could result in $2.1 billion in lost tourism spending in the US.
‘People are fed up’
Canadian couple Gary and Carol Cruise told CNN they’ve canceled two upcoming vacations to the US. The couple said they traditionally spend $30,000 annually on road trips around the country.
“We are furious and horribly insulted by the lack of respect coming out of the Oval Office,” Gary Cruise said.
For now, the couple said they haven’t officially canceled plans for a November trip to the US. They hope the once-friendly US-Canada relationship will be repaired by then.
“We love your country. We have seen almost all of your country. This is really horrible,” Carol Cruise added.
In Provincetown, Massachusetts, a popular summertime destination in New England, vacation rental owner Kent Newton told The Cape Cod Times one guest has already tried to cancel an upcoming summer stay. Newton eventually had to negotiate a discounted rate with them to keep the booking.
Canadian traveler Joe De Rome told the outlet that his family is canceling their annual trip to Cape Cod for the first time in 30 years. He specifically blamed Trump’s barrage of comments about his country.
“People are fed up,” he added.
Axel Springer, Insider Inc.’s parent company, is an investor in Airbnb.
