Canadian visitors to the United States dropped dramatically in 2025 during a year of chilly relations between the neighboring nations.
About 10 million fewer Canadians traveled to the United States in 2025 compared with the previous year, according to Statistics Canada, a 25% decline that hit border states like Michigan especially hard.
Canadian visits to southeast Michigan fell 30% from 2024 to 2025, said Visit Detroit CEO Claude Molinari.
“That’s a large decline in a short amount of time,” Molinari said. “And it’s certainly having a detrimental impact on our area hotels, restaurants and attractions, which have been able to rely on consistent Canadian travel in recent years.”
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The plunge occurred as President Donald Trump mused about turning Canada into America’s 51st state, accused the Canadian government of not cracking down sufficiently on fentanyl smuggling and slapped increased tariffs on Canadian products while arguing that America wasn’t getting a fair deal with its neighbor to the north. Canadian leaders have rejected Trump’s allegations.
Michigan business leaders told The Detroit News that the vision of a binational Detroit-Windsor economic region took a hit, but the underlying relationship between Michigan businesses and their Canadian partners remained strong.
“We know that Michigan businesses benefit greatly from tourism and from the business relationships that our Canadian partners have,” said Mike Alaimo, director of legislative and external affairs for the Michigan Chamber of Commerce.
“Canadians are very important to American businesses. We know that American businesses are important to Canadians,” Alaimo said.
Canadian visitors have been declining since the early 2010s. But outside of 2020 and 2021, when international and cross-border travel was restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the severity of 2025’s drop was unique.
About 25% fewer Canadians visited the U.S., including 22% fewer residents of Ontario, the province that shares a border with Michigan, according to Statistics Canada. Land travel drove the overall decline, dropping 30%. The final tally of around 29 million visitors was the lowest non-pandemic total since at least 2010, according to Statistics Canada.
John Popham, 43, of Windsor, Ontario, said he used to visit Detroit frequently, including for sports games, but said he hasn’t gone in over a year.
“It just seems like there’s so much uncertainty. We miss it like heck, because there’s a lot to do over there,” Popham said.
Popham said he used to post online whenever he went to a game in Detroit “because it was pretty awesome to see, like the Pistons playing well when they weren’t supposed to.”
He said he wouldn’t hold it against fellow Canadians who posted about spending time on the other side of the border, but said many Canadians have adopted a mentality of “shop local, support local” during the last year.
Decline ‘definitely being felt’ in Detroit
But the number of overall visitors to Detroit did not dip from 2024 to 2025 despite fewer Canadian tourists, Visit Detroit’s Molinari said, meaning that visits from other states made up for the Canadian losses.
“Detroit in particular and southeast Michigan in general is becoming a much more popular destination. The perception of our area has changed in a really positive way, and that’s helping us,” he said.
“If we didn’t have this challenge right now where most Canadians think it’s unpatriotic … to visit the United States, we’d be seeing a really positive as opposed to a flat trend.”
Fewer Canadian visitors especially hurt Detroit businesses, especially since the Detroit-Windsor area operates “very much as one economy,” said Eric Larson, CEO of the Downtown Detroit Partnership.
“We have leaned in to making sure that we are continuing to reinforce that this is a binational economy, that this region is better together and operates stronger and more sustainably together,” Larson said.
One factor that’s helped the city avoid the worst of the possible economic headwinds is Detroit’s strong sports culture: Many Canadians who live near Detroit support the Red Wings, Pistons, Tigers and Lions.
“We are still benefited by the fact that much of our binational region has one of the unique unifying aspects, and that’s sports,” Larson said.
But he said Canadian fans last year were more reluctant to publicly express their support for Detroit teams.
“I think the interesting thing is that while there are still season ticket holders and individuals buying tickets to various sporting and entertainment events, they are less likely to post about it. They’re less likely to acknowledge the time that they’re spending here,” Larson said.
Canadian statistics showed that same-day visitors to the United States (such as those who cross the border to see a hockey or basketball game) declined more than overnight visitors. Same-day visitors declined 30% from 18.8 million in 2024 to just over 13 million in 2025.
Larson emphasized that Canadians who visit Detroit to see a game or concert spend money at local businesses in and around downtown, such as restaurants, bars and retail venues.
“Every individual that decides not to attend an event … is not just the loss of the revenue for that facility, but it’s typically the loss of the time that they spend. They typically are here to have dinner first or after, so there is definitely a carry-over onto that,” Larson said.
Canadians fear ICE, ‘political tensions’
Two other Ontario residents who spoke to The News in downtown Windsor cited U.S.-Canada political tensions, more aggressive Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and the Trump administration’s anti-transgender policies as reasons they stopped crossing the border to visit Detroit.
Trevor Leeder, 26, a Windsor resident who has dual U.S. citizenship, said in a typical year he would travel to Detroit multiple times to visit family, attend concerts and eat at local restaurants.
“This year, I haven’t been at all,” Leeder said. “This year, it seems like there’s a lot of political tensions rising. It doesn’t seem like a safe space.”
“I know a lot of Canadians just hate Trump, especially after what he said about annexing Canada,” he said. “I don’t like that rhetoric either. For me, a big issue is ICE. It just seems like a rogue gang of untrained men with guns.”
He has a more personal reason to worry about cross-border travel, too. Leeder said his brother is transgender and worries that if he crosses into Canada, he might not be allowed back into the US.
“It feels precarious to go visit Detroit at this time. It’s something I miss,” Leeder said.
Kait Zeller, 35, said she used to go to Detroit “regularly, every other weekend to see a game or a concert or go shopping.”
Zeller, a law clerk who lives in Leamington, Ontario, liked to shop in Detroit because “the prices have always been a lot better” than in Ontario. She used to have season tickets to the Red Wings and said she enjoyed watching all the Detroit sports teams.
Zeller said she hasn’t visited the U.S. since 2018.
“I don’t recognize the country anymore. … The current administration needs to go,” she said.
Zeller said it’s unfortunate that tourism has declined, but “now, my friends don’t want to go over to Detroit either.”
Canadians reasons on why fewer are crossing over the river to Detroit
Canadians reasons why fewer are crossing over the river to visit Detroit
Michigan-Canada business relationship remains strong
While tourism-heavy regions in Michigan felt the impact of fewer Canadian visitors acutely, the trade relationships between the state’s manufacturers and partners north of the border remain strong, the Michigan Chamber’s Alaimo said.
“You have coastal communities that care more about tourism and about making sure you have out‑of‑state visitors, whether from Canada or the Midwest, visiting those areas and spending their money there,” he said.
But overall, Alaimo said, “this just underscores the importance of having a strong regional partnership, of having strong trade relationships with Canadian provincial governments like Ontario, which Michigan does an incredible amount of business with every year.”
Those ties are strengthened by the supply chains in the automotive and chemical manufacturing industries, which often send components back and forth across the border to make a single product.
“Obviously, in Michigan, we have a lot of important interconnectedness with our Canadian partners, and that’s not going to change,” Alaimo said. “We have a lot of members that do business with Canada and want to continue doing business with Canada.”
Canada remained Michigan’s biggest trading partner in 2025, according to the U.S. International Trade Administration, accounting for nearly $28 billion or 43% of all foreign exports.
Despite the fraying relationship between U.S. and Canadian leaders, Alaimo said, “We certainly know that President Trump cares about our trade relationships with our global partners, and he wants those trade relationships to be strong and in the American interest.”
“At the same time, I don’t think the fundamentals change. Our relationships with our country partners globally matter, but particularly with our Canadian and Mexican partners,” he added.
Alaimo said many chamber members “want to see more American options in their suppliers and in their supply chains,” but still want to do business with Canadian firms.
The Michigan Chamber will continue to monitor the trade negotiations over the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, the three-way trade deal between the U.S., Canada and Mexico, he said. The agreement goes into a joint review process this summer.
“At the end of the day, they want what we want: a strong and robust trade agreement so we can continue to have resilient supply chains across the border,” Alaimo said.
Exec: ‘I think we’re going to be friendly again’
Visit Detroit’s Molinari told The News he believed Canadian visitors to Michigan would eventually return to their usual levels.
“They feel they’ve been wronged, and they’re protesting with their lack of a presence,” he said.
Visit Detroit’s position is “we’re not going to be upset with Canadians for being upset with us. When they feel comfortable that the positive relationship is back, we’re gonna be extremely excited to welcome Canadians to visit with us again,” Molinari said.
In the meantime, he said Visit Detroit has adjusted its advertising so it doesn’t explicitly target Canadians.
“We’ve certainly cut back on our advertising because, frankly, we thought it came off as tone deaf, saying ignore the patriotic message that is coming from their government to not patronize the United States,” Molinari said.
But he doesn’t think the strain in U.S.-Canada relations will last.
“I believe peace is inevitable. I think we’re going to be friendly again. And I think they’re gonna come back when relations normalize,” Molinari said.
Windsor resident Popham indicated he is open to returning.
“I’d like some kind of announcement or proclamation from the federal government welcoming tourists, especially Canadian neighbors, to spend our money there,” he said.
bwarren@detroitnews.com
