The Trump slump in Canadian tourism that has been hurting business in Minnesota and nationwide is manifesting itself in South Dakota, says the Sioux Falls visitors and convention bureau:
Teri Schmidt, the chief executive officer of Experience Sioux Falls, the city’s visitors and convention bureau, said at Tuesday’s city council informational meeting that the number of visitors from Canada is down.
Schmidt said in a KELOLAND interview on Wednesday that the organization tracks guests who voluntarily register at the visitors center at Falls Park. She said the recorded numbers are not an exact science but they are reliable indicators.
In 2025, 119 Canadian visitors registered during the summer season. This year, 72 have registered so far and Schmidt doesn’t believe those numbers will catch up to last year.
…The decline in Canadian visitors is mostly because of the political situation, Schmidt said. Regional and national tourism and visitor organizations are noting the decline and the reasons, she said [Rae Yost, “Canadians Say No to Sioux Falls This Year,” KELO-TV, updated 2026.09.03].
The same Falls Park data show other countries avoiding Trumpland as well:
The city is also seeing a general decline in all visitors from foreign countries. Schmidt said on Wednesday visitors from 64 countries registered at Falls Park last year. This year, it’s 54 countries [Yost, 2026.09.03].
That decrease in foreign fun-seekers continues the trend Trump triggered last year, when international visits to South Dakota decreased 6.8% from the good old Joe Biden days.
We live near US281 and i travel that route a lot. I noticed last fall that I was not see Canadians heading southbound in their large RV and motorhomes, like in past years.
We usually spend 10 days or so in Arizona in the winter with a lot of that time at Lake Havasu. We always saw a lot of Canadian vehicles in the Lake Havasu area, but this past winter saw very few Canadian vehicles.
It will be interesting to see what happens in a couple months when the Canadians typically started their southward migration. Will Canadians boycott the USA to even a greater extent than they did last winter.
Canadians know the difference ‘tween red and blue states ie not welcome and always welcome.
According to TravelPulse Canada, Colorado Tourism Director Tim Wolfe pointed to “steady demand and modest growth from Canada, positioning the state as an outlier.”
Resilient Outlier: While many U.S. destinations saw steep drops in Canadian visitors, Colorado inbound traffic only dipped 3% in 2025 compared to a 22% national decline. [1] (https://governorsoffice.colorado.gov/governor/news/governor-polis-celebrates-second-annual-colorado-canada-friendship-day) – CO Governor’s Council on Tourism
Canadians are fine. They can’t move here. It’s the out-of-staters we need to be discouraging.
Elect Earth haters for mayor of Sioux Falls and watch bad things happen. It’s just that simple.