Canadians rethinking travel plans as Trump tariffs loom

Prince George is seeing this effect too, with flights to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, seeing around 95% capacity as tourists look elsewhere for vacations. While the economic impact of tariffs, and a weaker Canadian dollar, may certainly play a role, Jung believes the decision to travel somewhere other than the U.S. is motivated by emotion, not economics.

“I’ve never seen this kind of patriotic movement, I moved to Canada 13 years ago, I’ve never seen this kind of bond as Canadians and doing something good for our country and the Canadian economy. That kind of movement is impacting our travel behaviours as a Canadian as well, and you will see probably more on this if this situation is going to be uncertain for a while,” Jung explained.

“People want to support Canadian businesses and Canadian goods and stuff, it’s the same kind of context,” she continued.

Dr. Gabor Lukacs, President of Air Travel Rights, believes Canadians should avoid travelling to the U.S. to send a message to the government that tariffs are not the way to go. Beyond that, he also hopes the Canadian government takes a stronger stance against U.S. Airlines, as he says several U.S. airlines like United, Alaskan Airlines, and more, have been known to violate passenger rights but have not been punished for it.

“This may be a good time to just enforce, at least these foreign airlines, the law as written. And that may be a good reminder for those on the other side of the border that good business relations may be a good idea,” Lukacs said.

“This would be a nice way of at least setting things more into context that the kind of leniency that U.S. airlines have been getting in Canada may end if the U.S. is becoming more hostile to Canada,” he continues.

In general, Lukacs would also like to see the Canadian government act when Canadian airlines violate passenger rights too, saying “WestJet is probably a far worse offender than some of those American airlines.” However, as Canada finds itself faced with a possible trade war against the U.S. and Trump, Lukacs believes cracking down on American airlines could send a strong message.

“One way of simply reminding the U.S. of the value of good business relations is what you would call ‘work the rule’ when it comes to passenger rights,” he said.

As for what the average Canadian should do, beyond travelling to places outside the U.S., Lukacs adds it could be better to travel with Canadian airlines, or try and stay within Canada on longer international flights and transfers when possible.

“With the U.S. airlines being kind of part of the problem in a way, inadvertently, perhaps people may want to revisit whether they are flying out from a U.S. airport or Canadian airport, just to keep their tax dollars at home and not giving their airport fees and hard earned money to foreign companies, to U.S. companies,” Lukacs said.

Lukacs concluded by saying his ideal situation is one where both Canadian and American airlines are held to the same high standards by both countries, and also allowed to travel freely within both countries, but with the threat of tariffs, cracking down on American airlines and avoiding traveling to the U.S. is what he believes would be the best course of action.

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by Tommy Osborne

Canadians rethinking travel plans as Trump tariffs loom

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