Florida Loses 270,000 Canadian Visitors as U.S.-Canada Tensions Mount

Florida drew an estimated 1.68 million Canadian visitors in the first half of 2026 — about 270,000 fewer than a year earlier, a 14% decline, according to Visit Florida estimates.

The drop follows a nearly 7% pullback in Canadian visitation in 2025 and helped push total Florida visitors down 1.4% through six months, to 73.5 million, after a record year in 2025.

The state’s tourism agency offered no explanation for the Canadian decline, per NewsNation, but it has coincided with escalating U.S.-Canada tensions since President Trump returned to office, including a widening tariff fight and, this week, an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America.”

Canada remains by far Florida’s largest source of international visitors — about 3.2 million came in 2025, roughly 25% of all visitors from outside the U.S., more than double Brazil’s 10% share, according to the public data. This is compared with the first half of 2024, before trade tensions intensified, Florida has lost about 400,000 Canadian visitors.

A July report from Statistics Canada described early 2026 travel patterns as signaling “a persistent shift away from the United States” in Canadian travel preferences. Other destinations have been hit harder: Canadian visits to Las Vegas fell more than 17% in 2025, and New York state saw a 26% drop.

More than 90% of the state’s first-half visitors came from elsewhere in the U.S., with overseas travelers adding roughly 4.5 million. Canadians made up 2.3% of the total, down from 2.6% a year earlier. Domestic visitation also slipped slightly, down 0.7% in the second quarter.