Finance And then there’s Las Vegas Another usual hot spot where Canadians are avidly sought is Las Vegas, which enjoyed 1.5 million Canadian visits last year – the largest number of tourists from any foreign country. Stephen Miller, director of the University of Nevada at Las Vegas Business and Economic Research Center, calculated that Canadians who visited the city in the desert contributed US$3.6 billion to the local economy last year. That, said Miller, supported some 43,000 jobs in the region – more than those in the manufacturing sector – and equalled the economic output of the local Nellis Air Force base, one of the largest and most important military installations in the U.S. with some 15,000 personnel. Referring to the recent downturn, Miller said: “The Canadian numbers have gone down dramatically and it’s an area of concern for the casinos. After all, the main goal of the resort industry is to put heads in beds.” Amid such an atmosphere, Las Vegas Mayor Shelley Berkley held a press conference earlier this year during which she begged Canadians to come back to her city. “I’m telling everybody in Canada, please come. We love you, we need you, and we miss you.” Perhaps a truer test of the cross-border slump – if it continues – is to be found in Florida, where Canadians perennially comprise the largest contingent of foreign visitors** year after year. In 2024, Canadians made 3.4 million visits to Florida and, for the first two quarters of 2025, that figure was down by 18.1 per cent from the previous year. This is clearly serious but not catastrophic as Canadian roots in Florida and, to a lesser degree in Arizona, are much deeper than those in other states; many family homes passing down generations, and multiple-month winter vacations being the norm – for Grandma, Grandpa and the kids. For sports fans, there’s also the speculation that if the red-hot Toronto Bue Jays do well in the World Series, the hordes of Canadian spring training fans will return to Dunedin in February. ** Canadians represent the greatest number of international visitors annually to Florida by far – 27.6 per cent – followed by Brazil and the U.K., with just more than nine per cent each. That’s a hard trend to break. It’s not all about tariffs and elbows The fallout from political/sovereignty/tariff disputes has clearly had a negative effect on Canadian travel to the U.S. to date – all covered intensely by media since the early months of 2025. The fact that southbound travel (whether by car or air) has already been sharply reduced is undeniable. Numbers don’t lie. But the Conference Board data and projections, as well as several other prominently covered polls and research reports validate the importance of fiscal prudence in this equation. You don’t travel to foreign locations casually and certainly not if finances are slim. That’s reckless. As the CBOC concludes: “the predominant factor behind negative travel intentions is, not surprisingly, the cost.” And, as the TD Maru poll released back in 2024 also emphasized, “40 per cent of Canadians surveyed who plan to travel do not feel that they have the financial means to cover unexpected out-of-pocket costs; and 15 per cent say that they could only cover up to $300 of out-of-pocket expenses (in case of emergencies). Although Canadians don’t need a reminder, “The average Canadian family now spends more of its income on taxes (42.3 per cent) than it does on basic necessities such as food, shelter and clothing combined (35.5 per cent). Since 1961, the average Canadian family’s expenditures increased by 2,129 per cent – food by 927 per cent and clothing by 460 per cent. Fraser Institute: Taxes versus The Necessities of Life, 2025. Still, Canadians made 33.1 million visits to foreign countries in 2024, nine per cent more than in the prior year. Not bad for a population of just more than 41 million. Milan, a dual Canadian/U.S. citizen, and Canadian national award-winning medical writer has been reporting on international health-care issues for many years. He resides permanently in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He welcomes your comments at mkorcok@ aol.com 36 | www.snowbirds.org
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