Unraveling the traveling (Update: 51st state BS)

Please stay on topic in the comments. And, I can’t believe I have to say this in the year 2025, but do not spam up the place with multiple comments that are identical or similar.

Following up on Lemieux’s post about the Scolding State Department Gnome’s potential impact on the U.S. tourism industry: An article about how our northern neighbors are changing their travel plans.

First came the tariff threats. Then the annexation taunts.

But it wasn’t until reports surfaced about foreigners detained while trying to enter the U.S. that Oscar Acosta decided to call off trips to three business conventions south of the border.

He was “undeterred until last month” — when the tech CEO read about 35-year-old Canadian actress and entrepreneur Jasmine Mooney, who was held in detention for 12 days after reapplying for a work visa at the American border in San Diego and then banned from the U.S. for five years.

“That struck fear in my heart,” said Acosta, who runs Ottawa-based startup Body M3canix, which makes fitness-tracking devices for extreme environments.

“Being an entrepreneur as well, being from a visible minority — because my background is Hispanic — would I not run into a situation like the one that this lady ran into?”

Or worse. The U.S. held a Canadian citizen who looks white for 12 days and banned her for five years. For someone who is a visible minority there is also now the very real threat that some pig will notice he has a birthmark, claim it is a terrorist gang tattoo and the U.S. will send him off to the El Salvadoran oubliette.

Acosta is not alone. Across the country, Canadians are cancelling business trips, withdrawing from conferences and avoiding future bookings to the U.S. as the backlash against President Donald Trump hits the world of corporate travel.

At Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, business travel by air between the two countries declined by close to 40 per cent year-over-year in February amid a surge of nixed plans, said managing director Chris Lynes.

Unless the facility hosting an event is very forgiving, cancelling an event is the equivalent of taking a big pile of money and setting it on fire. Especially since I doubt facilities are extending contracts because the DOPUS is being a bigger dick than previously. But it appears that some Canadians companies are willing to take the hit.

At Flight Centre Travel Group Canada, business travel by air between the two countries declined by close to 40 per cent year-over-year in February amid a surge of nixed plans, said managing director Chris Lynes.

“We definitely had an immediate influx of cancellations for conferences that were meant to be in the U.S.,” he said, adding that scrapped bookings reached “fever pitch” two months ago.

“People had a lot of angst over travel down to the States because of the anger toward the U.S. government.”

Companies that pulled the plug — despite potential penalties or lost deposits — span sectors ranging from banking and insurance to manufacturing.

You know, industries full of delicate liberal snowflakes.

“One of the banking customers we had cancelled six programs to the U.S.,” said Lynes. Destinations included New York, Dallas and Washington, D.C., and especially Las Vegas.

Lynes’ own travel agency has let employees know it understands if they’re uncomfortable crossing the border to attend a company event in Los Angeles this summer.

“You can belong to a group that is being targeted. You may have a dual passport, you might be on a visa. There’s a lot of people who don’t want to travel because they just don’t feel confident and safe in doing so,” he said.

Nor is the ripple effect short term.

The cancellations extend as far as 2027, experts said. And upcoming corporate events without a set destination could wind up in Canada, Mexico or farther afield rather than in America.

I haven’t been able to find an article about the impact on tourism from Mexico, in part because my search engine can’t seem to grasp the concept of tourists coming from Mexico to the U.S. rather than the reverse. However, according to this 2022 report on international visitors to the U.S., 25% of total arrivals came from Mexico. Arrivals from Canada – 28%. If travel from our southern neighbor also declines, there will be even more unemployed people who aren’t trained to work in the imaginary factories that aren’t springing up all over the place.

Update: A commentariati mentioned Dump’s recent silence on Canada as the 51st state. As it turns out, a reporter asked the White House about it on Tuesday.

U.S. President Donald Trump still wants Canada to become the country’s 51st state, the White House said Friday, a threat he has made repeatedly but had appeared to quiet on in recent weeks.

Trump’s rhetoric toward Canada has appeared to soften since he spoke with Prime Minister Mark Carney last month, although he has occasionally brought up long-standing grievances on trade.

Carney — who is running in the election as leader of the Liberal party but is serving as prime minister in a caretaker capacity — said after the call that Trump “respected Canada’s sovereignty” in his private and public remarks that day.

The countries are set to hold talks after the federal election, which has been dominated by the economic and sovereignty threat posed by the U.S. administration.

Asked Tuesday if there was a reason for the apparent softening of tone, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt denied there was any change in Trump’s posture behind the scenes.

“I would reject the president’s position on Canada has shifted,” she told reporters.

“The president still maintains his position on Canada: the United States has been subsidizing Canada’s national defence, and he believes that Canadians would benefit greatly from becoming the 51st state of the United States of America.”