For more than thirty years, Richard Clavet has run a motel and statewide apartment rental business in nearby Fort Lauderdale. He focuses on the needs of Canadian snowbirds. The recent political and economic tensions between Canada and the United States have fomented a different kind of fear and confusion. This lingering uncertainty has been incredibly discouraging to would-be travelers. Donald Trump is escalating his economic war with Canada and rolling out hardline, nativist immigration policies. In response, a surprising number of snowbirds are reconsidering their plans this winter.
Approximately 900,000 Canadian snowbirds traditionally flock to the U.S. each year, with Florida being a favored destination for its safety, cleanliness, and numerous amenities. This year, nearly 40% of these travelers list political climate as the number one reason for avoiding travel to the south. The soaring prices of travel, worsened by an ailing loonie, make matters even worse.
Business owners such as Clavet and realtors in states inundated by seasonal snowbirds are reporting a drastic loss of rental reservations. As for the popularity of these programs, Clavet points out that many Canadians are souring on the U.S., expressing things like, “There’s a little push back. There’s always someone calls in [from Canada] and says, ‘No, no more US! Before we were friends, and now enemies.’”
Clavet’s business has felt the impact firsthand. For us those folks have gone away,” he continued, “Bookups are down, our pricing’s slightly lower to counter, to get them back. When the bank failure tsunami hit in March and April, the majority of depositors simply walked away. Thankfully, we were able to backfill those rooms with other people, so it wasn’t the end of the world. In the example of summer, they did not book a year out. This decision in return financially crippled us.
The snowbird economy is critical for both Canadian travelers and U.S. states like Florida. Additionally, it produces an estimated $20.5 billion annually in direct spending. This, combined with property and sales taxes, supports more than 3 million jobs. Recent North American real estate surveys indicate that 54% of Canadian homeowners in the U.S. are considering selling their properties within a year. Of those, 62% identify political issues as their top concern.
Ryan Rachkovsky, a government relations representative with the Canadian Snowbird Association, pointed to “ambiguity” around travel policy this year. He spoke to the important issue of the current patchwork depending on which border officer you see. It’s affected by the port of entry you plan to use to enter the U.S. As a courtesy to our members, we’re letting them know in advance. Congress needs to know that this should be a real possibility.
Rachkovsky stressed the importance of being prepared, especially for snowbirds this season. “Our message to snowbirds every year is: be prepared. This year, obviously people are going to be prepared in a different way.”
Yet in face of all these challenges, Rachkovsky argues that hundreds of thousands of home-owning snowbirds will make their yearly pilgrimage to sunny Florida. Longer-term travelers are telling us in no uncertain terms that they do not want to come to the U.S. this upcoming season. For the average traveler — and particularly those who do have homes in the U.S. — the journey is one they’ll take again this year, just as they have for decades.
The broader economic landscape complicates matters further. From the rental market to property insurance coverage, Floridians have witnessed dramatic price increases all around. Rachkovsky stated, “In Florida, prices are going up, particularly for things like insurance coverage, and the Canadian dollar isn’t helping as well. So it’s a much more complex picture than just looking at it from a political standpoint.”
Political sentiment is an outsize factor in deciding whether and how often to travel. Valorie Crooks — A researcher who studies the relationship between cross-border mobility and health. She underlined the importance of free movement across the border for snowbirds. As Krantz underscored, being a snowbird centers almost entirely around the ability to cross the border with ease. It’s this easy, convenient southward flow that epitomizes the snowbird lifestyle. Few things scare advocates more than this disheartening sentiment: political will is often lost with the first change of the wind. So this is the latest stage in their concerns.
With winter coming, many Canadian snowbirds are looking for warmer retreats. They are going to Mexico to avoid the ease of travel American travel turmoils. This change would be a tremendous shot in the arm for Canada’s burgeoning tourism industry, bringing in unprecedented revenues. With fewer Canadians venturing south, many are choosing to remain at home.