The owner of a Windsor travel agency says, 'people are changing' when it comes to their winter travel habits as they look beyond the U.S.
Owner of Elite Travel, Sarah Hupalo, told AM800's The Shift, that the biggest destination right now is Mexico, but more people are also going overseas to international destinations than they are going south to the United States.
Hupalo says there are several trends she's seeing this year.
"Portugal is really hot this year, Spain and Portugal. Ireland is really popular. Ireland and Scotland-I'm seeing a lot of that," she says. "Actually, what's really surprising is I'm seeing a huge, huge increase in trips to Africa. Never done more African safaris; I've done more in this last year than I have in the past 30 years."
A poll from Snowbird Advisor, an online resource for Canadians wintering outside the country, shows a 15 per cent drop in the number of respondents who intend to head stateside this year.
Meanwhile, the number of snowbirds-residents who spend at least a month in a warmer location during winter-planning travel to Mexico, Spain, or other sunspots has nearly doubled.
The poll surveyed more than 4,000 snowbirds in late October and cannot be assigned a margin of error because it was conducted online.
Hupalo says Mexico is the most popular destination for Canadians, which is impacting last-minute deals on hotels and flights.
"If you book early, there are incentives to now have free baggage included. If you book closer, your baggage is included, so the price might seem lower, but now these extra little fees will start adding in. The earlier you book, in some regards, the better than actually waiting. So we're seeing a lot more people booking early," she says.
Experts say Canadians' growing aversion to America stems from a mix of factors, including political tensions over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, fear of potential treatment at the border, and a lopsided exchange rate, with the loonie worth about 71 US cents.
Hupalo says everything has really changed, and it's a shame because there is such a long relationship between the two countries.
"It makes me sad actually to see how it's going right now. But Canadian tourism is doing very, very well because of it. A lot of Canadians are actually travelling within their own country, and we have an absolutely beautiful country, but we tend to go south more," she says.
Statistics Canada says Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. in October posted another month of year-over-year declines as Canadians continue to shun stateside travel.
The agency says preliminary figures show Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the U.S. in October totalled 1.4 million, a drop of 30.5 per cent compared with the same month last year.
The number of return trips by air from the U.S. by Canadian residents amounted to 437,300, down 23.9 per cent from October 2024.
The drop came as the number of Canadian residents flying back from overseas countries totalled 964,200 in October, an increase of 6.8 per cent from a year ago.
With files from the Canadian Press