Canadians, other international tourists shun Oregon this summer
Spending by international travelers to Oregon this summer has dropped sharply, down 21% this July compared with July 2024, according to an analysis of Visa card spending prepared for Travel Oregon.
The Oregon Coast took the biggest hit — international travelers’ spending in July, the most recent month for which figures were available, plummeted to half of last year’s.
“We go weeks now without getting a guide [book] order from Canada, which is very unusual, so it’s definitely changed now,” says Josh Heineman, Seaside’s director of tourism marketing. “There’s certainly a lot less volume of interest in traveling here.”
President Donald Trump’s threats to make Canada the “51st state” have alienated the biggest source of international tourism to Oregon: Canadians, who make up more than half of international visitors. Canadians’ Visa card spending in Oregon this July was half that of July 2024.
“I will put my country ahead of my vacation plans and spend my money in Canada instead,” Janice Reynolds of Calgary, Alberta, wrote to Travel Oregon, the state’s lodging tax–supported agency.
“A lot of the letters, actually, people were sad,” says Julia Amato, director of communications at Travel Oregon. “They wanted to come here, but just as a source of honoring their own country, they didn’t feel like they could spend their dollars here in the United States.”
International tourists spent an estimated $700 million in Oregon last year. This summer, every area of the state lost international tourism dollars, the Travel Oregon data shows.
Comments
Otis
I can't believe that folks from Canada would be frightened of being put into a swamp/gator prison pit in FLA. Shocking.
BTW...1200 inmates from that prison are now missing as that facility is now shutting down.
I guess we could change up the Visit Oregon marketing scheme to attract folks that seem to really like cruelty and bondage?
Lulu
I wouldn't visit this country either. I am ashamed to be an American.
Bigfootlives
Maybe it's the homeless camps, graffiti, trash, mentally ill wandering the streets, high prices, most of the small shops that made Oregon towns unique-closed and boarded up, the once beautiful City of Roses - a has been tourist draw - now resembles a toilet, the fact that Oregon is the home base of Antifa, high crime rates, our no consequences book and release justice system (but everything is great Tina, thanks), our massive drug and drug trafficking problem, or it's probably because Donald Trump picked on Justin Castro.
Just ask, I can fill 4 or 5 comments with links to back up all of this - you only have 2000 characters in each comment.
Bigfootlives
LULU,
I am sorry you are so ashamed. If I get you the $2,350 for you to renounce your US citizenship, would you do it? That is the cost to process the paperwork. You could then get to Canada as an asylum seeker.
Lulu
Article 25. Trump is demonstrably insane; his cabinet is a cesspool filled with sexual predators, drunks, racists, misogynists, and power-hungry groveling toadies. No wonder you're bent over from all that kissing of his swollen feet.
Ron
Lulu leave the country. Take your battery powered car and see how far you get I hope it floats. Stay and complain or leave the country your hatred is obscene. I noticed you despise the airshow also and all the money that gets donated. You are definitely out to lunch 24 seven. Leave the country there’s a real estate office on every corner. You just stated you wouldn’t visit the US. Why would you live here? Simple question.
Lulu
Talk about hysteria...