Tourists are turning away from Trump’s America – but that’s good news if you’re planning a trip

Exclusive: On every 30 wide-bodied plane arriving in the US, one passenger will have their social media scrutinised as the president demands tourists are ‘vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible’. Simon Calder looks at the Trump effect on travel

Sunset on Las Vegas Boulevard? Prices are dropping as tourists stay away (lucky-photo - stock.adobe.com)

We’re making America great again, and it’s happening fast,” – so said Donald Trump at a rally in Michigan. “Trump-loving Patriots” converged to celebrate the president’s “historic first 100 days in office”. The event was held in a Detroit suburb just 10 miles from the Canadian frontier, where, the day before, Mark Carney had won the election on a platform of standing up to a man who wants to make the vast northern neighbour just another American state.

Canadians make up the highest number of tourists to the US: 24 million visited last year; in second place, Mexico, at 17 million and the UK, at four million. While the official US tourism data for March 2025 for Canada seems strangely elusive, happily, there are two sides to every international border.

Statistics Canada says 32 per cent fewer returning residents took return road-trips into the US last month compared with a year earlier. “This was the third consecutive month of year-over-year decline,” the numbers people in Ottawa observed drily. The figure by air was, as expected, down by a lesser amount (13.5 per cent); air travellers commit financially further ahead.

Meanwhile, on the southern border, Visit California says that arrivals from Mexico in March fell 24 per cent. With fewer Canadians flying to Los Angeles (for Disneyland) and San Francisco (for some “California love,” says state governor Gavin Newsom), Visit California predicts a $6bn (£4.5bn) drop in revenue.

What does all this data mean in the real world? Well, Canadians are getting lots of new air routes as airlines see summer sales to the US slump and they pivot to more domestic and European links.

Besides frankly weird new routes such as Winnipeg to St John’s in Newfoundland (WestJet), it will be easier to travel between Scotland and Quebec thanks to Air Canada announcing a summer route from Edinburgh to Montreal at just three months’ notice; normally airlines like to announce such things at least a year ahead. However, with demand for US flights plummeting, those expensive planes and pilots have to fly somewhere. And where better than Scotland?

Scots and other UK citizens are pivoting away from the US to Canada and other transatlantic destinations. For some, it is an antipathy towards a leader who appears intent on destroying his nation’s democratic institutions. Others fear being “vetted and screened to the maximum degree possible” on arrival, as Donald Trump demanded on day one of his second term.

It will be easier to travel between Scotland and Quebec City (pictured) thanks to Air Canada (Gilberto Mesquita/stock.adobe.com)

Of every 30 wide-bodied jets arriving from abroad to the US, one passenger will have their social media scrutinised, The Independent calculates from Customs and Border Protection figures.

With UK airlines committed to transatlantic flying this summer, the effect is clear. Anyone wanting to start May in Manhattan can fly on Virgin Atlantic nonstop from Manchester to New York JFK for under £350 return – the kind of fare that you would normally see only in the depths of winter, rather than a day before departure in summer. California in July? British Airways will take you from London Heathrow to Los Angeles for barely £500 return. (To Vancouver on the same dates, BA’s fare is almost 50 per cent higher, revealing a strong Pacific preference for Canada over California.)

Santa Monica, Los Angeles, is now a reasonably cheap destination to get to from London Heathrow (James Shin/stock.adobe.com)

Across the nation at Miami’s South Beach, mid-range hotels are cutting rates below $100 (£75) in a bid to fill rooms. And for those of us fed up with high car rental rates at airports, Hertz’s operation in Las Vegas has a “manager’s special” of just £45 per day.

Over the past few years (under Joe Biden, to be clear), prices for British visitors to the US have soared.

Now, as Donald Trump appears to be Making All (tourists) Go Away, those costs are plummeting. Experience shows that the British can be reliably tempted by good deals. So, strangely, UK tourism to America may grow this year as we fill the vacuum created by vanishing Canadians and Mexicans. Just remember to budget for those increasingly absurd tips: waiters will be hungrier than ever.