TRAVEL TO THE UNITED STATES FROM EVERY REGION OF THE WORLD IS DECLINING, BUT ONE COUNTRY IS BUCKING THE TREND: CANADA. DESPITE FRANTIC CALLS FOR BOYCOTTS, OVERNIGHT TRIPS SOUTH ROSE IN 2017.

TORONTO • When President Donald Trump issued his first executive order banning nationals from majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States, some Canadians reacted by vowing to boycott travelling south of the border.

Within days, academics, school board superintendents, even Girl Guides followed through with those pledges, abruptly cancelling trips to the United States.

Travel and tourism officials feared the ban would dent America’s image as a foreigner-friendly country and lead to a “Trump slump,” dealing a blow to an industry that had only just recovered from a US$600billion loss between Sept. 11, 2001, and 2010, according to the U.S. Travel Association.

There has been a slump. While international tourism arrivals worldwide increased seven per cent in 2017 — a seven-year high — the U.S. is missing out on that boom, according to the UN World Tourism Organization. Data from the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Travel and Tourism Office show international arrivals to the United States fell 3.8 per cent during the first three quarters of 2017, compared with the same period in 2016.

Travel to the U.S. from every region of the world is declining, but one country is bucking the trend: Canada.

Despite the frantic calls for boycotts, overnight trips from Canada rose 4.8 per cent to 20.2 million in 2017, reversing a three-year decline, according to Statistics Canada.

Experts say the factor that has traditionally had the strongest influence on the travel habits of globetrotting Canadians is the relative value of the loonie, making it possible that the weakening U.S. dollar is providing an incentive for cross-border travel. But many remain puzzled because the U.S. dollar slumped against a number of currencies in 2017, like the euro, and there has been no increase in travel to the United States from Europe.

“It is difficult for us to pinpoint exactly why the Canadian arrival data has diverged from the rest of the world,” said Seth Borko, a senior research analyst with Skift, a travel market research and industry intelligence firm. Proximity may be driving the trend, he said.

Concern abounded in the wake of the entry ban that Canadians were cooling on U.S. destinations — so much so that some American tourism officials travelled to Canada in an unprecedented effort to combat the rhetoric from the White House.

“It’s rare that we go up to Canada and do two events in the same year,” said Chris Heywood, the senior vice president of global communications with New York City’s official tourism organization. “But last year was one of those years.”