Canadian trips to the United States falling, some cities south of the border implanted visitors to return.
Holiday Hotspot Palm SpringsCalifornia, make sure that Canadians know that they are welcome.
The banners with the maple leaf in a heart were suspended in the city center band and at the airport.
“The maple leaf belongs to Palm Springs,” mayor Ron de Harte told Global News.
“It’s just a way to tell Canadians who are our friends and neighbors, and really our community, because they are here. Many are there for two, three, four months each year, and they are part of our community.
“And that was a way of saying for those who are still here in town and who have not returned home, thank you, we love you, and rest assured that next year, no matter what is going on in Washington, DC, we will continue to be the Palm Springs with which you fell in love ago.”
De Harte said that Canadians are an important component of their travel industry, with around 300,000 Canadians from Palm Springs each year.
The new regulations started on Friday, forcing Canadians to spend more than 30 days in the United States to register for the United States government.
Last week, Westjet and Flair Airlines announced that they were cutting their season short from Canada to Palm Springs due to less reservations.
“Then we hear locally in town, people simply share that they concern, they do not feel comfortable,” he said.
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“They leave. We hear people who are in Canada, and who send emails that say that “we hear stories about people who were standing on the border and it’s not a comfortable moment for us”.
But Harte said that Canadians will always be welcome.
Closer to the BC-US border, cities with deep ties on both sides also say they feel the effects of what’s going on in the White House.
The county of WhatCom in Washington is the second largest commercial gateway along the American border with Canada, after Windsor-Detroit.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars go through the county of WhatCom, in both directions, which is very important,” Sidhu Sidhu, county director, Global News.
He said the county also has two oil refineries, which provide jet fuel at Vancouver Vancouver Airport and Seatac International Airport as well as fuel to communities on both sides of the border.
The county of WhatCom also houses four educational establishments and is a destination for outdoor enthusiasts and travelers around the world.
“We have more links with the North, the Canadian side than with Seattle,” said Sidhu, adding that about a quarter of the county population is linked to Canada.
He said they were returning to “normality” after the years, when the trade war of US President Donald Trump began.
“I think that respect is mutual,” he added, speaking of ourselves and Canadian citizens, “and I think we would like to see this disturbance and resentment caused by federal rhetoric to disappear and we should be back to our fundamental values and our basic relationships that we have always had between Canada and the United States”
Sidhu said they would still welcome their Canadian neighbors and that he knows that Canadians will still welcome residents of WhatCom.
The latest statistics Canada figures show that it is not only Canadians who modify travel plans.
More than half a million less visitors arrived in Canada by plane in March, compared to the same era last year, which represents a drop of 7.4%.
However, around 300,000 more American visitors arrived in Canada in March, which increased by 1.2%.
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