Canadians are killing American ski resorts – and the political tensions are just the tip of the iceberg

Canadian tourists are increasingly skipping U.S. ski resorts this winter, with an unfavorable exchange rate possibly playing as big a role in the decline in cross-border travel as President Donald Trump’s punitive tariffs and aggressive rhetoric.

Located just over an hour south of the border, 49 degrees North Mountain Resort in Chewelah, WA, has long attracted a steady stream of ski and snowboard enthusiasts from up north, but over the past few seasons that flow has slowed to a trickle as the Canadian dollar stumbled.

“As we see the exchange rate move closer, we’ll see a lot more Canadian guests coming across the border to visit us,” Rik Browndirector of skier and rider services at 49 Degrees, says Realtor.com®. “If there is an inequality there like there is now, it doesn’t make much sense to them, especially if they have good options nearby.”

On Friday, January 30, 1 US dollar was equivalent to 1.36 Canadian fools, reducing the purchasing power of visitors from the north.

Dash Hegemanmarketing director at Holiday Valley Ski Resort in Ellicottville, N.Y., also attributes the decline in cross-border tourism to the weakness of the Canadian dollar against its U.S. counterpart.

“There is an unfavorable exchange rate for the Canadian dollar, and that is certainly a factor when people are making their vacation plans,” Hegeman tells Realtor.com.

At Holiday Valley, located about 60 miles south of the border, Canadian citizens have historically accounted for 20% of the resort’s visitors. They made the short drive south to enjoy skiing, tubing and snowshoeing in the winter, and golf and biking in the summer.

The resort also has a school night ski program, offering multi-week ski lessons to students. According to Hegeman, Canadian school groups typically make up a significant portion of enrollment, but this year they are locked into the program.

“Early this winter, school group advisors informed us that school boards had decided that there would be no school-sanctioned international travel this year,” says the marketing director. “That was obviously not what we were hoping to hear, but it is something we have no control over, so we now look forward to welcoming them back to Holiday Valley when those rules change.”

How do political tensions impact Canadian travel?

But cost pressures aren’t the only factor keeping some Canadians away from the US

Since August, the Trump administration has imposed a 35% tariff on most Canadian imports, up from a 25% levy introduced in March 2025 due to ongoing trade disputes and strained diplomatic relations.

At the same time, Trump has repeatedly suggested that Canada should become the 51st state, leading to widespread condemnation from Canadian leaders and the public, who oppose what they see as a lack of respect for the country’s sovereignty.

Just a week ago, Trump shared on his Truth Social account an AI-generated photo of a map with the American flag over several other countries, including Canada, Greenland and Venezuela.

All this has not escaped the attention of Canadian visitors.

According to an update from November to a tracking study of Canadian travelers performed by Longwoods Internationala tourism market research firm, more than half of all respondents said they did not plan to travel to the U.S. in the next twelve months.

Among Canadians whose travel decisions were influenced by U.S. politics, roughly three in four cited U.S. tariffs and economic policies as a negative influence, while nearly 70% pointed to “political statements from U.S. leaders as a negative factor.”

Zak Andersondirector of Discover Whitefishthe marketing organization for Whitefish, MT, home of Whitefish mountain resortsays that once Trump started making inflammatory comments about Canada after his inauguration, visits from the North declined. By December 2025, it was down 25% year over year, according to a market report shared with Realtor.com.

“We still have Canadian friends traveling down, and we have a long and historic connection with Alberta, but generally they are avoiding travel because of issues at the border,” Anderson tells Realtor.com, citing longer wait times and increased surveillance fueled by the Trump administration’s anti-immigration policies.

For local businesses in Whitefish that rely on Canadian visitors, the decline in tourism means they will have to adjust their revenue expectations.

“So far, the current administration has been bad for Montana business,” Anderson said.

At the 49 Degrees resort in Washington state, Brown says he also heard from Canadian guests last winter that they were no longer interested in vacationing in the U.S.

“There were certainly a lot of people who were not interested in crossing the border into the United States for anything, whether it was for recreation, to do any kind of tourist activity, or just to come and shop,” Brown says, noting that the rhetoric has since cooled.

By the end of January, winter bookings from Canada at U.S. resorts were down about 41% – slightly better than the 44% drop in December. according to Inntopiaan online booking and marketing platform.

Steve Wrightchairman and general manager of Jay Peak Resort in Vermont, spoke at a forum about the impact of Trump’s trade war organized by sen. Peter Welcha Democrat from Vermont, revealed in June 2025 that winter season passes sold to Canadians fell 35%, while hotel reservations fell 45%.

“The conversations I had with these Canadian households who are not coming back next year… many were teary and choking over the fact that they just couldn’t in good conscience come to the United States,” Wright said.

However, Holiday Valley’s Hegeman says that despite an uptick in comments on social media from some people saying they planned to boycott U.S. resorts this winter, many Canadians he knows consider Ellicottville a “second home.”

“My feeling right now is that a lot of those guys still continue to make the trip here because they feel like it’s part of who they are,” he says. “Many of our Canadian friends know what a special place Holiday Valley is and they continue to come and enjoy the skiing and riding.”

U.S. resorts that have seen their Canadian bookings disappear, whether due to Trump’s tariffs, immigration policies or the unfavorable exchange rate, are taking several steps to try to lure their visitors back from the north.

At Holiday Valley, representatives have been liaising with Canadian school board advisors and offering promotions through ski and snowboard shops in Canada to attract visitors.

The US resort also has a presence at ski, outdoor and golf fairs held annually in Toronto in a bid to stimulate demand.

Others, like Whitefish Mountain Resort, are turning their attention to domestic visitors, figuring it may take some time for Canadian tourism to recover.

“I don’t expect the economy to recover anytime soon, at least for three or four years, and possibly much longer,” Anderson said.