The Canadian travel industry has certainly been paying close attention this week for any new developments that might help it assess the potential impact that the failed Canada-U.S. trade talks might have on the travel plans of Canadians as the 2026-2027 winter season fast approaches.
While working through the political rhetoric of the early part of this week may well have been a challenge and with the latest report indicating that there are no new talks planned, response from the industry has been both calm and well-reasoned.
As Flight Centre Travel Group’s Amra Durakovic told Travel Press Today: “Canada-U.S. trade tensions are adding another layer of uncertainty to travel south of the border. For our industry, the bigger story is not simply whether Canadians are travelling less. It is where that demand is going instead.”
Durakovic also pointed out that: “Over the past 18 months, Canadians have shown they will often redirect a trip before they cancel it. U.S. leisure demand fell sharply in 2025, while demand strengthened within Canada and across Mexico, the Caribbean, Europe, Japan and Southeast Asia. In many cases, the trip did not disappear. The money moved somewhere else.”
She pointed out that: “The U.S. story in 2026 is also more nuanced than a simple decline or recovery. Flight Centre’s new U.S. leisure bookings made from January through August 2026, for departures this year, are down 7.4 per cent year over year. In July, bookings were up 5.7 per cent compared with July 2025, but remained 39 per cent below July 2024. We are improving from a very weak 2025 base, but we are not back to previous travel patterns.”
On the other hand, Durakovic told TPT that: “Business travel is telling a different story. Corporate Traveller Canada’s cross-border air bookings are up 4.8 per cent year to date through July. Canadian companies still have customers, suppliers, employees and operations in the U.S., so those commercial relationships tend to be more resilient than leisure sentiment.”
And she added: “That divergence is worth watching. The U.S. remains an important market for Canadians, but leisure travellers are making different choices while business ties remain significant.”
However, Durakovic also warned that: “The broader economic picture is the bigger risk. If tariffs and prolonged uncertainty begin weighing more heavily on household budgets, business confidence or investment, we could see an impact across both leisure and corporate travel.”
But for Durakovic it’s also about results, noting that Flight Centre Canada “was the most improved Flight Centre leisure market globally in the financial year ended June 2026, while Corporate Traveller Canada delivered its third consecutive record year.”
She told TPT that: “We are continuing to invest across both businesses — growing our teams and opening new stores in Toronto and Vancouver, while expanding Corporate Traveller’s presence in Quebec — and staying close to how demand evolves.”
The point, said Durakovic is “that is not a bet on one destination coming back. It is a bet on Canadians continuing to travel — and on our ability to move with them.”
