The Canadian travel industry is closely watching the failed Canada-U.S. trade talks, assessing their potential impact on Canadians’ travel plans for the 2026-2027 winter season.
The industry’s response has been calm and well-reasoned, despite the challenges of working through the political rhetoric.
Amra Durakovic, of Flight Centre Travel Group, noted that Canada-U.S. trade tensions are adding another layer of uncertainty to travel south of the border.
Durakovic said, “For our industry, the bigger story is not simply whether Canadians are travelling less, it is where that demand is going instead.”
She pointed out that over the past 18 months, Canadians have shown they will often redirect a trip before they cancel it.
While U.S. leisure demand fell sharply in 2025, demand strengthened within Canada and across Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia.
Durakovic noted that in many cases, the trip did not disappear, the money moved somewhere else.
Flight Centre’s new U.S. leisure bookings made from January through August 2026, for departures this year, are down 7.4 per cent year over year.
In July, bookings were up 5.7 per cent compared with July 2025, but remained 39 per cent below July 2024.
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On the other hand, business travel is telling a different story, with Corporate Traveller Canada’s cross-border air bookings up 4.8 per cent year to date through July.
Durakovic said that Canadian companies still have customers, suppliers, employees, and operations in the U.S., so those commercial relationships tend to be more resilient than leisure sentiment.
The divergence between leisure and business travel trends is worth watching, as the U.S. remains an important market for Canadians.
However, Durakovic also warned that the broader economic picture is the bigger risk, as tariffs and prolonged uncertainty could weigh heavily on household budgets, business confidence, or investment.
This could potentially impact both leisure and corporate travel, but for now, the industry is focused on adapting to the changing demand.
They are continuing to invest across both businesses — growing their teams and opening new stores in Toronto and Vancouver, while expanding Corporate Traveller’s presence in Quebec — and staying close to how demand evolves.
It is key to move with the changing demand, rather than betting on one destination coming back.
By doing so, the industry can continue to support Canadians’ travel plans, regardless of the outcome of the trade talks.