Empty bus seats plague route to Jays spring training in Florida as Canadian interest in U.S. travel drops

This is part of a series of postcards as The Globe and Mail travels across the U.S. this March Break to find out whether Canadians are still heading to popular destinations despite the trade war

One of Ray DeNure’s charter buses arrived in Myrtle Beach, S.C., this week with just three passengers on it.

The owner of DeNure Tours in Lindsay, Ont., said demand for American travel has plummeted since U.S. President Donald Trump won the election, and the only reason the bus set off for Myrtle Beach is because just enough tourists are booked for a return trip to Canada on it.

“There’s been a trend away from U.S. travel since Trump was elected in 2016. This pattern is not new; it’s just accelerated,” said Mr. DeNure, who would usually operate weekly tours from the Toronto-area to Myrtle Beach and more trips to other destinations. Instead, he’s cancelled around 10 trips this year.

“We feel like we’re back in the pandemic where demand has dropped to just zero,” he said.

Even though some American businesses haven’t reported seeing a drop in Canadians, tour companies such as Mr. DeNure’s, which offer coach bus trips throughout the U.S., have noticed it immensely. He said bookings to U.S. destinations dropped by roughly half since the election last November and have almost stopped entirely since the trade war. He said the company is trying to pivot to providing transportation for more school hockey games and ski trips to make up for lost business to the U.S. in the winter months.

Mr. DeNure’s nearly empty bus arrived in South Carolina just as The Globe and Mail left Myrtle Beach and headed further south as we imitate the classic March Break road trip to Florida. The central question is whether Canadians are still heading south of the border as Mr. Trump’s government wages a trade war and talks of annexing Canada. On Day 3, we would make a nine-hour drive to Dunedin, Fla.

On the way is Hilton Head Island, an upscale golf community in South Carolina, near the state line with Georgia, where Ontarian David Robb said he has cancelled the last week of a five-week vacation because of the recent events of Mr. Trump’s presidency. He’s considering ditching the week before that, too.

“Our daughter and family are here for the Ontario spring break and that is the big reason for not completely cancelling this trip,” said Mr. Robb, who said the travel changes come despite penalties they receive on the time-share points they used to book the vacation.

He said his family is also cancelling a trip to Europe booked with a U.S. company, which would have had many American travellers on it. They lost a deposit of US$1,000 for that trip.

Despite his concerns about being in the country, he says he hasn’t had any bad experiences with locals, who seem to try extra hard to tell them how much they love Toronto when he says he’s from that area. Any time he sees a MAGA hat, he turns the other way.

Other Americans don’t mince words, however.

In a conversation with staff at the Georgia welcome centre, while driving across the state line, a man and woman were friendly, but stern.

They said Canadians should be paying their fair share on trade, and that Mr. Trump is doing great things by protecting his country’s people first.

Travelling south on the I-95 highway, the grass got greener and temperatures quickly climbed from around 10 degrees in Myrtle Beach to 21 degrees in Florida.

A large sign surrounded by palm trees read “Florida welcomes you,” but tourists like Parker Donham, who has been coming to Dunedin, in the Tampa Bay area, annually for a decade (except for two years during the pandemic), doesn’t feel as welcome as usual.

“I certainly feel sheepish going this year, and if I hadn’t paid for it, I wouldn’t have gone,” said Mr. Donham, a dual citizen who lives in Nova Scotia and comes for the Toronto Blue Jays spring training games in the town.

He already has roughly $3,000 invested into the trip, and unlike Mr. Robb, he won’t be keeping his head down.

“I’ll be wearing a bright red ball cap emblazoned with the words, “Canada is already great,” Mr. Donham said.

Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly spelled Ray DeNure’s first name. This version has been corrected.