Tourism Sarnia-Lambton may be eager for an increase in business because of the so-called Trump Slump, but the head of the tourism agency in Windsor-Essex is a little more cautious.
Tourism officials in the U.S. predict travel to the U.S. will fall this year because of new policies from the White House, including a ban on travel from visitors who have citizenship in Sudan, Libya, Iran, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Washington State and Hawaii are suing to stop the ban.
Tourism Windsor Essex Pelee Island CEO Gordon Orr says the region could see an increase in American visitors, but it is hard to predict. TWEPI already markets to Americans in Ohio and Michigan, but it will be months before Orr knows for sure if there is, in fact, a boost in American trips.
"We track some key performance indicators on a quarterly basis," he says. "What our hotel occupancies are, to find out the number of people visiting our tourist information centres are, certainly our website statistics, our social media."
He says some factors appear to weigh in Canada's favour as a destination: a sense of safety and a lower Canadian dollar.
"When you put all of those things into perspective -- I think that positions us quite well," says Orr.
Orr also anticipates an increase in the number of people choosing to take a stay-cation this year, travel within Canada.
Destination Canada says travel to Canada from abroad was up 16% last year, and trips from the U.S. increased 10%. It calls 2016 the best year for Canadian tourism in 14 years.
In Sarnia, Joy Sim-Robbins at Tourism Sarnia-Lambton has received calls from companies that have not visited that area in three or four years.
"All of a sudden, they're reaching out to us and what to know what's new -- what they can bring a tour over for," she says.
