New Brunswicker Bruce Newman loves New York City, but not enough to rethink his current boycott of travel to the United States.
“I do feel for people in New York, and Vermont,” said Newman. “I don’t have anything against Americans. It’s just the current administration.”
Newman considered taking his wife to New York’s famed Broadway for her 75th birthday last spring but decided to head to London’s West End theater district instead, despite the higher price tag.
“I’m one little guy and this is the statement that I can make and apparently a lot of other Canadians feel the same way,” he told Global News.
He changed his travel plans, as a response to the ongoing trade war, which escalated again last week when U.S. President Donald Trump threatened 50 per cent tariffs against Canada.
New York is feeling the impact of Canadians choosing other destinations and is hoping to lure them back.
NYC Tourism + Conventions unveiled its “Northern Neighbor Deal,” offering Canadian visitors 30 per cent discounts at more than 85 tourism, hospitality and entertainment businesses across the city.
“There has been a pause for some visitors, and we respect that and understand that. And we are here and welcoming them and ready when they are,” Julie Coker, president and CEO of New York City Tourism + Conventions Coker told Global News.
Coker said Canada remains the city’s second-largest international market, but the city has seen a dip in visitors.
“We understand that there are some factors out of our control in terms of the sentiment that Canadians may have toward the U.S.”
Coker said the city welcomed nearly one million Canadian visitors annually before the pandemic, but that number fell to about 800,000 in 2025, a drop of roughly 19 per cent from the previous year.
Tourism officials expect the number of Canadian visitors to increase slightly this year to about 820,000, but it remains below pre-pandemic levels.
The promotion will run from Aug. 18 to Sept. 7, spanning the Labour Day holiday period in both Canada and the United States. Reservations open Aug. 4.
While many Canadians have chosen to boycott travel to the United States after trade tensions began, there has been a rebound in the number of visitors heading south of the border, said Ipsos Public Affairs senior vice-president Gregory Jack.
“The situation with the U.S. has really moved from an emotional shock reaction to more of a sustained reality.”
But tourism to the U.S. has not yet returned to levels seen before the tariff dispute began, Jack added.
“Canadians are kind of in an endurance economy point of view right now. They’re enduring through what they think is a permanent shift in our relationship with the economy overall and with the U.S.”
The Big Apple is not the first U.S. destination trying to entice their northern neighbours to return. Kalispell, Mont., Buffalo and Las Vegas are also running campaigns aimed at attracting Canadian visitors.
For Neman, it remains a hard sell.
Coker says she wants to remind Canadians “New York is still the same.”
“We would ask Canadians to look at that and the history that we’ve had over many, many years and not just define our relationship over the past few years,” she said.
Based on reporting by Global News.