Is this the moment for a spring break in Mexico or Canada?
The idea might seem iffy as the Trump administration confounds its neighbors by toggling tariffs on and off and throwing countless jobs into doubt. Yet for travelers, industry veterans say, this seesaw experience won’t make an immediate difference to the cost of flights or lodgings in Mexico or Canada.
Because the tariffs are based on goods crossing borders, not people, they don’t directly affect airlines and hotels. But the tariff battle may also bring indirect effects that could bump up travelers’ costs, anxieties or both.
In all three countries, restaurants may soon be paying more for ingredients and passing along the expense. In the Canadian province of Ontario, Premier Doug Ford ordered government-run liquor stores to take American alcohol products off their shelves.
At the marketing organization Destination Vancouver, communications director Suzanne Walters said some U.S. groups “are putting a hold on their near-term events” in Vancouver — not because of tariffs but “because of job losses or cuts in government funding.”
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When it comes to leisure travelers, “it’s business as usual,” she said. “Our focus remains on being open and welcoming to all our visitors and that certainly includes our American friends.”
People wait at Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX. Last month, as the tariff conflict was heating up, Air Canada announced that it would reduce service to multiple U.S. cities.
(Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)
But the relationship is increasingly complicated. A March 5 “Trump Tariff Tracker” web survey by Canadian polling firm Leger found that while 60% of Americans surveyed said they considered Canada an ally, just 31% of Canadians said the same of the U.S. — and 30% said they now see the U.S. as an enemy.
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Meanwhile in southern Baja California, “we have not seen any effect on bookings,” said Rodrigo Esponda, managing director of the Los Cabos Tourism Board. In fact, Esponda said, the number of flights from California into Los Cabos is due to rise with the addition of nonstop service from Oakland on March 20 and Ontario in June.
“Nobody,” Esponda said, “is connecting the ongoing [tariff] conversations with the hospitality element in the destination.”
March is the destination’s busiest month of the year, Esponda said, attracting more than 300,000 visitors. As annual tourism to Los Cabos has grown from 2.7 million in 2019 to 3.7 million in 2024, average hotel rates there have risen to $450 a night.
The tariff hostilities, simmering for weeks, escalated on Tuesday, when the Trump administration imposed a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada, alleging that those countries are both soft on drug smugglers, though statistics show Canada’s role in U.S. drug smuggling is minimal.
Canada then said it would phase in 25% tariffs on many U.S. goods over the next three weeks. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum, who warned that nobody would win under Trump’s proposal, said Mexico would retaliate and called Trump’s claims of Mexican drug-trade corruption “offensive, defamatory and without support.”
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Next, Trump moved to exclude automobiles from the measures. And then on Thursday — two days into the new tariffs — Trump reversed course and said he would delay tariffs on many Canadian and Mexican goods until April 2. (Trump also has boosted tariffs on China by 10%, with retaliation by China expected in the coming days.)
Airfares and hotel rates aside, the posturing and rhetoric have already turned off some prospective travelers, especially in Canada.
Another Leger survey found that 16% of Canadian respondents had canceled trips to the U.S., while 1% of American respondents had canceled trips to Canada.
If higher tariffs are imposed and last several weeks or more, travel industry veterans say they would expect a slump in cross-border business travel, a key source of income for airlines and hotels. With fewer business travelers, airlines might reduce the number of flights, charge leisure travelers more or charge less and hope to stimulate demand.
“If they see that kind of drop-off, you’ll see smaller planes and less frequency and higher costs,” said John DiScala, publisher of the JohnnyJet.com newsletter and a frequent visitor to Canada. DiScala noted that last month, as the tariff conflict was heating up, Air Canada announced that it would reduce service to multiple U.S. cities.
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A boat is framed by the Arch of Cabo San Lucas, a granitic rock formation at the southern end of Cabo San Lucas.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
In the much longer term, higher tariffs would boost the cost of building, buying and leasing jets, putting stress on airlines to boost prices.
Even if the current standoff cools down, bad blood could linger, several industry-watchers have said — and not just in Canada. One snap survey, conducted the day after President Trump’s address to Congress, found that 72% of veteran travelers expect that Americans abroad “will be less welcome and perceived more negatively” as a result of Trump’s global trade policies.
The survey, conducted by Global Rescue, a provider of medical care, security and risk-management services to travelers, queried more than 1,100 travelers after President Trump’s speech to Congress Tuesday.
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“The data is clear — travelers are expecting a shift in how they are received abroad,” said Dan Richards, CEO of the Global Rescue Companies, in a prepared statement. “This doesn’t mean Americans should cancel their travel plans, but they should be aware of their surroundings, practice cultural sensitivity, and take proactive steps to mitigate potential risks.”
On March 3, openjaw.com reported that FlightCentre Travel Group Canada had seen a 40% drop in Canadians booking leisure trips to the U.S.
Still, when it comes to Canadian hosts’ attitude toward American visitors, DiScala said he didn’t expect a lot of fireworks. “Will Americans be welcome? All my Canadian readers said they will be, unless they wear a MAGA hat or ‘51st state’ shirt,” he said. “They don’t think that’s funny at all. And I don’t blame them.”
Meanwhile in Mexico, there’s another tariff situation for travelers to keep in mind. In December 2024, Mexico’s Senate approved a $42-a-head tax on inbound foreign cruise passengers, to take effect July 1.
The move drew protests from cruise lines but is far from unique. Foreign tourists arriving in Mexico by air were already being assessed a comparable tax. Also, in the last two years, destinations in New Zealand, Greece and Iceland have imposed or boosted taxes on visiting cruise passengers.
The French government confirmed this week that it has granted citizenship to George and Amal Clooney — pictured on a London red carpet in October — and their 7-year-old twins.
Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images
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Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images
One of Hollywood’s most recognizable stars is now officially a French citizen.
A French government bulletin published last weekend confirms that the country has granted citizenship to George Clooney, along with his wife, human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, and their 7-year-old twins.
The Clooneys — who hail from Lexington, Ky. and Beirut, Lebanon, respectively — bought an 18th-century estate in Provence, France in 2021. In an Esquire interview this October, the Oscar-winning actor and filmmaker described the French “farm” as their primary residence, a decision he said was made with their kids in mind.
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“I was worried about raising our kids in LA, in the culture of Hollywood,” Clooney said. “I felt like they were never going to get a fair shake at life. France — they kind of don’t give a s*** about fame. I don’t want them to be walking around worried about paparazzi. I don’t want them being compared to somebody else’s famous kids.”
In another interview on his recent Jay Kelly press tour, Clooney mentioned that his wife and kids speak perfect French, joking that they use it to insult him to his face while he still struggles to learn the language.
This week, after a French official raised questions of fairness, France’s Foreign Ministry explained that the Clooneys were eligible under a law that permits citizenship for foreign nationals who contribute to the country’s international influence and cultural outreach, The Associated Press reports.
The French government specifically cited the actor’s clout as a global movie star and the lawyer’s work with academic institutions and international organizations in France.
“They maintain strong personal, professional and family ties with our country,” the ministry added, per the AP. “Like many French citizens, we are delighted to welcome Georges and Amal Clooney into the national community.”
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They aren’t the only ones celebrating. President Trump, who has a history of trading barbs with Clooney, welcomed the news by taking another dig at the actor.
In a New Year’s Eve Truth Social post, Trump called the couple “two of the worst political prognosticators of all time” and slammed Clooney for throwing his support behind then-Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election.
“Clooney got more publicity for politics than he did for his very few, and totally mediocre, movies,” wrote Trump, who himself has made cameos in several films over the years. “He wasn’t a movie star at all, he was just an average guy who complained, constantly, about common sense in politics. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Clooney responded the next day via a statement shared with outlets including Deadline and Variety.
“I totally agree with the current president,” Clooney said, before referencing the midterm elections later this year. “We have to make America great again. We’ll start in November.”
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Clooney and Trump — once friendly — have long criticized each other
Clooney, a longtime activist and Democratic Party donor, has remained active in U.S. politics despite his overseas move.
In July 2024, he rocked the political establishment by publishing a New York Times op-ed urging then-President Joe Biden — for whom he had prominently fundraised just weeks prior — to drop his reelection bid to make way for another Democrat with better chances of taking the White House. A growing chorus of calls led to Biden’s withdrawal from the race by the end of that month.
In a December interview with NPR’s Fresh Air, Clooney said his decision to speak out on that and other issues generally comes down to “when I feel like no one else is gonna do it.”
“You’ll lose all of your clout if you fight every fight,” he added. “You have to pick the ones that you know well, that you’re well informed on, and that you have some say and you hope that that has at least some effect.”
Clooney has been a vocal critic of Trump throughout both of his terms, most recently on the topic of press freedoms during the actor’s Broadway portrayal of the late journalist Edward R. Murrow last spring.
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And Trump has been similarly outspoken in his dislike of Clooney, including in an insult-laden Truth Social post — calling him a “fake movie actor” — after the publication of his New York Times op-ed.
In December, just days before this latest dust-up, Clooney shared in a Variety interview that he and Trump had been on good terms during the president’s reality television days. He said Trump used to call him often and once tried to help him get into a hospital to see a back surgeon.
“He’s a big goofball. Well, he was,” Clooney added. “That all changed.”
In the same Variety interview, Clooney — the son of longtime television anchor Nick Clooney — slammed CBS and ABC for abandoning their journalistic duty by paying to settle lawsuits with the Trump administration. He expressed concern about the current media landscape, particularly the direction of CBS News under its controversial new editor in chief, Bari Weiss.
Weiss responded by inviting Clooney to visit the CBS Broadcast Center to learn more about their work, in a written statement published in the New York Post on Tuesday. It began with “Bonjour, Mr. Clooney,” in a nod to the actor’s new milestone.
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Clooney told NPR last month that he will continue to stand up for what he believes in, even if it means people who disagree with him decide not to see his movies.
“I don’t give up my right to freedom of speech because I have a Screen Actors Guild card,” he added. “The minute that I’m asked to just straight-up lie, then I’ve lost.”
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — Kentucky health officials are warning the public of possible measles exposures in northern Kentucky earlier this week.
A post on the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s Facebook page said it “identified potential measles exposures in Grant County.” According to the post, the exposure was traced to “an unvaccinated, out-of-state traveler” who stayed at the Holiday Inn & Suites in Dry Ridge from Dec. 28-30.” That person also visited the Ark Encounter on Dec. 29.
Measles, a highly contagious respiratory virus, can cause serious health problems, especially in young children, according to the CDC’s website. The virus spreads through the air after someone infected coughs or sneezes. It can then linger for up to two hours after the infected person leaves.
The virus can also be spread if someone touches surfaces that an infected person has touched. Symptoms include a cough, runny nose and red eyes, followed by white spots that appear on the face and down the body. Two doses of the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine is the best protection against measles, according to health officials.
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Contact your healthcare provider if you think you or someone in your family may have been exposed.
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Every year around this time I present a “new names in the news” quiz. I’m going to give you some names that you’d probably never heard before 2025 but that were prominent in the news during the past 12 months. You tell me who or what they are.
1. Zohran Mamdani
2. Karoline Leavitt
3. Mark Carney
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4. Robert Francis Prevost (hint: Chicago)
5. Jeffrey Goldberg (hint: The Atlantic)
6. Sanae Takaichi
7. Nameless raccoon, Hanover County, Virginia
Last week’s challenge
Last week’s challenge came from Joseph Young, of St. Cloud, Minn. Think of a two-syllable word in four letters. Add two letters in front and one letter behind to make a one-syllable word in seven letters. What words are these?
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Challenge answer
Ague –> Plagued / Plagues / Leagues
Winner
Calvin Siemer of Henderson, Nev.
This week’s challenge
This week’s challenge is a numerical one from Ed Pegg Jr., who runs the website mathpuzzle.com. Take the nine digits — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. You can group some of them and add arithmetic operations to get 2011 like this: 1 + 23 ÷ 4 x 5 x 67 – 8 + 9. If you do these operations in order from left to right, you get 2011. Well, 2011 was 15 years ago. Can you group some of the digits and add arithmetic symbols in a different way to make 2026? The digits from 1 to 9 need to stay in that order. I know of two different solutions, but you need to find only one of them.
If you know the answer to the challenge, submit it below by Thursday, January 8 at 3 p.m. ET. Listeners whose answers are selected win a chance to play the on-air puzzle.
