As a dual citizen, Hirte travels frequently between the two countries to visit family, and vice versa. This year, (2025) Hirte says, her family will not be visiting the U.S. They’ve even started avoiding American-made products in their day-to-day shopping.
“That started before the tariffs. That started more because of the disrespect,” Hirte said. “The attitude is ‘F you Trump.’”
Trump’s comments may even have played a pivotal role in boosting the floundering Canadian Liberal Party to electoral victory last month.
Stores throughout the country are emphasizing the purchase of Canadian-made products over American ones, while marketing campaigns encourage citizens to travel within the country and keep their money out of the U.S.
“At night, when I was going through New York and Ohio, I was listening to a Canadian station, AM 740. They have ads every few hours that say, ‘Stay in Canada. Spend your money here,’” said Charlie St. Clair, president of Laconia’s Motorcycle Week, the annual event that will take place this year from June 14 to 22. “There is a concerted effort in Canada to get that message out, and it’s resonating.”
St. Clair heard the ads on his annual journey to spread the word about Motorcycle Week.
According to St. Clair, the motorcycle festival world has already been hit by the Canadian travel boycott.
“It affected Bike Week in Daytona in March,” St. Clair said. “I’ve had nine different people call me personally to say they were canceling their trip to Laconia. They felt it was important enough to call me to say their piece.”
While nine people doesn’t seem like much, St. Clair iterated that every single Motorcycle Week visitor is economically significant to the Lakes Region. The event attracts between 275,000 and 300,000 bikers each year.
“Even if only 50 tourists don’t come because of this, that equals a lot of money in Motorcycle Week,” St. Clair said. “Talking to other business owners, this is not good.”
St. Clair acknowledged Trump’s ultimate alleged goal of using tariffs to bring manufacturing to the United States, but noted that most of the businesses moved production overseas on their own accord.
“It’s going to take a long time to build that stuff up,” St. Clair said. “Meanwhile, we’re going to suffer greatly, and I don’t know if this is the way to do it.
This is just like the high school bully going nuts.”
‘Volatility and uncertainty’
Hirte of the Franco-American Center became a U.S. citizen 29 years ago. Her love of both countries has only made the current situation more painful, she said.
“It’s so hurtful, sad and stupid, and there’s absolutely no reason for it,” Hirte said of Trump’s tariffs and comments. “I feel bad for those small businesses, especially on the border, that live off of tourism. The businesses, the hotels, how are they going to suffer? They suffered bad enough over the pandemic, and they’re finally recovering, now this crap? My heart goes out to them.”
“Certainly, Canadian visitation is a topic of interest right now,” said Mike Somers, president of the N.H. Lodging & Restaurant Association. “We’ve seen that in the first quarter — Canadian visitation to the northern border was down 20%, or something like that. There is concern that will carry through the important summer season.”
Somers stated that some of his members have already seen cancellations from Canadian visitors, but the exact forecast for the coming summer is uncertain. Decreased gas prices, he said, could offset some of the loss by increasing the total number of drive-in visitors to the state. Anecdotally, Summers said, the areas where Canadians stay — including North Conway, the Lakes Region and Hampton Beach — could account for 5 to 15 percent of New Hampshire tourism.
“We had a discussion with our board of directors this morning,” Summers said. “Most are anticipating they will be flat, slightly up by the end of this year, maybe next year with slight growth.”
“The whole tariff thing, quite frankly, causes a lot of volatility and uncertainty,” said René Sylvestre, delegate of the Quebec Government Office in Boston. “It costs more for Canadians to travel to the U.S., and more people are afraid to lose their jobs because of the tariffs.”
Sylvestre did say that economic impacts of the tariffs vary greatly from industry to industry, and many Canadian businesses are continuing to trade with their American counterparts.
“The real impact is around tourism. In Vermont, in New Hampshire, Maine as well,” Sylvestre said.
Because of the U.S. immigration crackdown, htraveling in and out of the states is a much more uncomfortable process, Sylvestre said. “More questions are being asked of more travelers, and some are now afraid to travel to the U.S., based on perceptions,” Sylvestre said.
“It’s unfortunate, the current situation. We have to get through this, because our economies are intertwined, especially upstate New England,” Sylvestre said. “Today I was in Maine, and we get the same kind of comments; ‘I’ve been doing business with Canadians for decades, and we have great business partners, so let’s find ways to get through this.’”
Dampened expectations
Scott Labnon, owner of the Town & Country Inn in Gorham, said he doesn’t expect to be affected by a Canadian travel boycott, but it’s tough to gauge or predict the number of Canadian travelers this early in the season.
“A pretty good percentage of people don’t book as far out, like they used to,” Labnon said.
According to Butch Ladd, executive director of the North Country Chamber of Commerce, the brunt of the boycott has yet to come to his territory, and it will be a few more weeks before the picture becomes more clear.
“The general thought is that business is probably going to be down,” he said. “I don’t think it will be as bad as Covid. If something doesn’t change, there will be people that just decide to spend their money in Canada. I hope not, but I get it.”
At Hampton Beach, John Nyhan, director of the Chamber of Commerce estimated that Canadians provide 10 to 15 percent of the tourism revenue in his neck of the woods.
“They’ll spend three to three and a half million (dollars) during their stays at Hampton Beach,” Nyhan said. He expects a drop in the number of Canadian visitors, but “I don’t project it right now to be a massive drop.”
In March, Nyhan and other U.S. Chamber of Commerce heads attended an outdoor recreation event in Montreal to speak face-to-face with Canadians in light of the “confusion in Washington,” he said.
“Everyone coming to our booths were very friendly. We found that the seasoned travelers, the people over 50, would come up and say, ‘We love Hampton Beach, we’ve been coming for years, and we’re going to postpone this year,’” Nyhan said. “Those in the range of 25 to 40, primarily couples, didn’t care about what was going on in Washington. They were going to come because they really want outdoor recreation and that the state offers a variety of outdoor recreation, from the mountains to the lakes to the beaches.”
Karmen Gifford, director of the Lakes Region Chamber of Commerce, said she had a similar experience at the expo.
“‘Not this year’ was the comment that came back, but it was very positive other than that,” Gifford said. “There’s just uncertainty. That’s their way of addressing it.”
Regardless of the economic impact this summer season, the relationship between the two long-term allies is clearly strained.
“Saying sorry is not enough,” Hirte said. “I think the injuries are so deep, it’s like a cancer that needs to be completely cut out. It’s going to take decades.”
But she hopes for signs of improvement over the next few months.
“There are people who still work together, talk to each other, and so on,” she said. “At the end of the day, we live in the same region, so hopefully things will be back to normal.”
She pointed out that her daughter recently drove through Vermont with Nova Scotia license plates on her car and found a note on her windshield that read:
“Dear Canadian friend, thank you for being here.”
These articles are being shared by partners in the Granite State News Collaborative. For more information, visitcollaborativenh.org.
