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Mexico is reaping the advantages of a US journey boycott by Canadians indignant on the insurance policies of President Donald Trump, with customer numbers hovering as airways add new flight routes into the nation.
The variety of Canadian residents visiting Mexico climbed 15.6 per cent in March in contrast with the identical month in 2024, in keeping with the Mexican Secretary of Tourism.
Canadian air journey to the US fell 13.5 per cent over the identical interval, whereas cross-border street journeys have been down a few third, in keeping with Statistics Canada.
Mexico’s tourism minister Josefina Rodríguez Zamora instructed the Monetary Occasions the figures confirmed that Canadians have been “opting for friendlier policies” by visiting her nation as a substitute of the US.
“I think they are choosing more friendly policies,” she added.
Whereas Canada has for years been an vital vacationer marketplace for Mexico, Rodríguez Zamora mentioned that ties between the 2 nations had strengthened in current months to “become more like brotherhood”.
Trump’s threats of annexation and steep new commerce levies have triggered a patriotic boycott of American items and journey in Canada. Studies of harsh therapy in direction of vacationers coming into the US have additionally weighed on customer numbers from different areas, together with Mexico.
The variety of Mexicans taking flights to the US this March was down by virtually 1 / 4 on 2024, the primary year-on-year decline since Might 2022, in keeping with the US Division of Commerce.
McKenzie McMillan, a journey adviser in Vancouver, mentioned he anticipated a sustained “boom” in Canadians travelling to Mexico as a result of the boycott of US journey in Canada was “only intensifying”.
He mentioned his purchasers have been dedicated to swapping seashore holidays in California and Florida for journeys to Cancún and Cabo, and buying and selling metropolis breaks in New York for Mexico Metropolis — a minimum of during Trump’s time period.
Some airways have trimmed again the variety of flights from Canada to the US in favour of its southern neighbour. Air Canada and Montreal-based Air Transat this week each introduced new nonstop flights to Guadalajara, and mentioned they’d additionally improve the frequency of their winter companies to different locations in Mexico, together with Los Cabos and Puerto Vallarta.
This redirection in journey flows may very well be helpful for Mexico’s economic system which is in the midst of a pointy slowdown, with tourism having made up 8.6 per cent of GDP in 2023. The IMF is predicting Mexico will fall into recession this yr — partially due to Trump’s tariffs.
Tourism development additionally slowed final yr, however has remained above that of the broader economic system.
“The best way to describe it is a state of resilience in an uncertain environment,” mentioned Francisco Madrid, head of the sustainable tourism superior analysis centre at Anáhuac college in Cancún.
The variety of nights booked in Mexico by Canadian customers on short-term letting platform Airbnb elevated 27 per cent between March 2024 and March 2025. Bookings within the US, in the meantime, dropped 12 per cent.
Resort reserving platform Trivago mentioned {that a} decline in Canadian searches for lodging within the US had been offset by rising curiosity in home journey and a 20 per cent year-on-year leap in searches for Mexico within the three months to March.
On-line journey company Reserving.com mentioned that searches in Canada for lodging in Mexico Metropolis have been up 49 per cent in April, in contrast with the identical time final yr. Curiosity in seashore locations Cancún, Sayulita, and Playa del Carmen jumped by virtually a fifth.
Mexican resort operator Grupo Hotelero Santa Fe forecast robust occupancy charges for 2025 as Canadians and Europeans “look at Mexico more than the US” resulting from Trump’s aggressive tariff coverage, mentioned vice-chair Francisco Zinser.
Hyatt, one of many world’s largest resort chains, reported stronger resort demand “in the non-US Americas”, together with “increases in Canadian travellers into Mexico and the Caribbean”, chief govt Mark Hoplamazian mentioned on an earnings name final week.
US trip hotspots are in the meantime struggling to lure again guests from the nation’s largest worldwide vacationer market. California governor Gavin Newsom launched a advertising and marketing marketing campaign in April inviting his “neighbours up north” to go to a state that’s “2,000 miles from Washington”.
Further reporting by Rafe Uddin in San Francisco and Ilya Gridneff in Toronto
