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By Mary Hladky
If it were up to Canadian Dory Kilburn, she would sell her home in Briny Breezes and never return to the U.S.
“I really love Briny,” she said. But President Donald Trump’s threat to annex Canada as the 51st state, his demeaning rhetoric about the country’s leaders and the imposition of tariffs have horrified her.
She’s equally concerned about how he is running his own country.
“Democracy is slipping away in the United States,” she said. “The United States was always our guiding light. Now it is not. It is really scary.”
Yet she’s not going anywhere for now. Her husband, Jack Marcuccio, wants to “wait and see what happens” before making a decision to sell.
Kilburn is not the only Canadian who would like to pull out of Florida. She and her husband know 10 couples who attend a three-month golf holiday in Naples each year. They are not booking for next year. Two couples they know in Cocoa Beach have sold their homes.
Other Canadians who own homes in Briny Breezes and spoke with The Coastal Star don’t want to pull up stakes.
Joan Nicholls spent only eight days in her Briny Breezes home this year because medical problems pushed her back to Ontario for treatment.
“I am looking forward to going back down there again,” she said. “I had a wonderful time. I hated to leave.”
And there’s no doubt she will return. She has bought a golf cart. “I have all intention of going back.”
Larry Sudds rooted for Trump to be elected president even though he knew Trump might hurt Canada financially. So he is fine with Trump’s actions.
“I have no problem getting back to Palm Beach County no matter what happens,” said his wife, Linda. “I am not opinionated on anything. It is what it is. Hopefully it will turn out to be the best on both sides.”
The fact that these annual visitors love where they live part-time and have long-standing ties to Palm Beach County sheds some light on whether or how much the county’s Canadian tourism will be hurt by U.S. politics.
No clear trend yet
As of late April, the county’s tourism marketing organization, Discover the Palm Beaches, had no current data that would show if the county is taking a hit. President and CEO Milton Segarra expects to get that as soon as this month.
But Segarra is hopeful.
While he is expecting some decline, “so far, the numbers we have are extremely positive,” he said.
Hotel bookings as of February surpassed all his goals. “The Palm Beaches are registering one of the best high seasons ever,” he said.
Peter Ricci, director of Florida Atlantic University’s Hospitality and Tourism Management Program, agrees that there’s not yet cause for alarm.
“While there is economic and political uncertainty globally, The Palm Beaches seems to have thus far bucked any type of negative trend,” he said in a late March email. “As a local tourism professional, I remain optimistic for the 2025 calendar year thus far.”
As of late April, he had not changed his assessment. He attributes the county’s positive showing so far at least in part to Trump’s frequent trips to Mar-a-Lago and the politicians, other visitors and media who come in his wake.
Canada’s crucial tourism role
The stakes are high. Canada is Palm Beach County’s most important international market, accounting for 39% of the county’s total international visitation.
Last year, nearly 370,000 Canadians visited the county, contributing $500 million to the economy.
Canada is vitally important to the state as well. It is the state’s top international market, with 3.3 million Canadians visiting in 2024.
If Palm Beach County avoids a sharp downturn by the end of the winter tourist season, Segarra said that might be due to the fact that most Canadians arrive in the fall. So they were already here when Trump launched his tirade and tariffs against their country.
But Segarra is getting feedback that shows Canadians are concerned about the potential impact on their economy and they are “emotionally charged about the narrative about the sovereignty of their nation.”
So he took a different approach when members of his organization traveled to Toronto in March.
Rather that creating a new business strategy to attract visitors, he thanked his Canadian partners for their support.
If the situation improves and Canadians are ready and willing to travel to Palm Beach County, Discover the Palm Beaches will launch tailored marketing that Segarra hopes will retain Canada as a top market.
The Trump effect
But much remains well outside Segarra’s control. If Trump backs off his crusade to take over Canada and punish it with tariffs, relations between the countries might stabilize and Canadian animus toward the U.S. could fade.
If not, Canadians would have even more reason to shun the U.S.
While Palm Beach County may have escaped the worst for now, there are plenty of indicators already that things have gotten ugly.
Canadians are boycotting U.S. goods. Two-thirds of Canadians said they have reduced their purchases of American products in stores and online by more than 60%, according to a March survey by the Canadian market researcher Leger.
Advance bookings for Canada-U.S. flights in April-September are down over 70% compared to last year, according to the aviation data firm OAG. Airlines, however, have disputed that number.
Nonetheless, airlines are reducing the number of flights from Canada to the U.S. The greatest impact has been felt in Florida, with Miami International Airport seeing 23% fewer seats and Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport with 20% fewer, according to OAG.
But Canadian travel to Palm Beach International Airport increased in February, according to the airport’s most recent report. Air Canada brought in 5,747 passengers, compared to 4,814 in February 2024. But that number was down from January, when 7,098 passengers arrived.
The Canadian airline Porter, which first flew into Palm Beach International in November, brought in 2,081 passengers in February.
Canadian tour companies have reported a sharp drop-off of people booking tours to the U.S.
A weaker Canadian dollar also is having an impact, since it makes the U.S. more expensive. Canadian money stretches further in places like Mexico and Costa Rica.
The fall will tell
Sophie Lalonde, chair of the Canada-Florida Business Council, agrees with Segarra that the impact of Trump’s words and actions were muted because Canadians were already in Florida when tensions flared.
“You will have a better feel, a more realistic picture in the fall” when it is known how many Canadians are returning, she said.
But she sees a worrying sign.
Many Canadians, she said, come to Florida for spring break. Yet that didn’t happen this year.
“This year people canceled their trips, even trips that were pre-booked…,” she said. “A lot of Canadians are revolting and saying, I am not going.”
Trump may not be the sole reason, she said. The weak Canadian dollar likely played a role.
But feelings in Canada are running strong. “Canadians are upset. They are upset because it is a fight that shouldn’t have started. We have always been good friends. We have done business together for forever,” Lalonde said.
She highlighted Canada’s value to Florida. Six hundred Canadian companies operate in the state while Canadians contributed $4.6 billion to Florida’s economy in 2022.
“We are very important to you guys,” she said, “just like you are very important to us.”
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