PARK CITY, Utah — Karen Lavender and some of her Canadian friends were planning a trip to Utah, California and probably Arizona.
They wanted to see national parks. They canceled in the spring.
“Most Canadians,” Lavender told FOX 13 News in a phone interview from her home in British Columbia, “are not interested in coming to the States right now because of the threat to our sovereignty.
“It also would be the continual lying that happens from the current administration; the threats that we would become a 51st state.”
Lavender isn’t the only Canadian staying on his or her side of the border.
In July, Canada’s national statistics agency observed a 37% drop in Canadians returning from the United States by car. It was the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year decline. Canadian air travel to its southern neighbor dropped, too.
Canadians have long been the biggest foreign visitors for Utah’s $12 billion tourism industry. But the decline appears to be broader than one country.
Bryce, Canyonlands, Capitol Reef and Zion national parks saw visitation dips in June and July. (At Arches National Park, visitation declined in June but then overtook the July 2024 figure.)
Also in those months, the state of Utah collected less resort tax than it did a year ago.
“We do see a lot of tourism here in Park City, and it does seem like it is a little down,” said Mitch Bedke, president of the Park City Artists Association.
On Sunday, Bedke was selling his own artisan glass at the Park Silly Market as locals and some out-of-towners filled Main Street and walked in and out of booths like his. He said summer sales started slow, but have since risen to proximity with previous years.
“The amount of shipping I do is a little off from years previous,” Bedke noted, in a sign that fewer tourists may be buying his glass fish and other artwork.
Bedke said artists who are merchants like him need a steady increase in income “just to keep buying more raw materials.”
Will Lavender return to the United States while Donald Trump is president?
“While he's president? No, not a chance,” Lavender answered.