Non-Americans now paying more to visit national parks, so will Canadians stay away?

It has become more expensive for Canadians to visit national parks south of the border as all non-U.S. citizens will now have to pay an additional U.S. $100 per person, on top of standard entry fees, to enter some of the country’s most popular parks.

This is part of the initiative to prioritize U.S. visitors to the parks under President Donald Trump’s America-first pricing.

The U.S. Department of the Interior states that the 11 parks include: Acadia, Bryce Canyon, Everglades, Glacier, Grand Canyon, Grand Teton, Rocky Mountain, Sequoia & Kings Canyon, Yellowstone, Yosemite and Zion.

“It does appear to be yet another roadblock towards Canadians visiting the United States,” McKenzie McMillan, managing partner at The Travel Group in Vancouver, told Global News.

“There is a large number of Canadians that visit those national parks, whether flying into a destination like Denver, Salt Lake City, and then exploring, or going on a road trip and driving through some of the amazing national parks, especially out here on the western side of the United States.”

McMillan said it could send the message that Canadians are not welcome in the U.S. to enjoy the national parks.

He said he thinks the U.S. will become a favourite travel destination for Canadians again.

“The one thing I will say is that I’ve seen travel boycotts in the past,” he added.

“I’ve seen Canadians choose to spend their money elsewhere. This is the first time I’ve seen so much resolve with Canadians, where there hasn’t really been a let-up of the sort of urge to travel to other destinations.

“And so I think at this point all bets are off, but I am confident that somewhere down the road we will see Canadians going back to the United States, but it could take a little bit longer than we hope for.”

Lori Williams, associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, said they have seen a level of Canadian pride and a Team Canada approach across all provinces.

“I know people who have to travel to the United States, who wish they didn’t have to go; they’re doing it for business or professional reasons, but a lot of employers here are advising their employees not to go to the United States,” she said.

Williams added that many travellers will form new patterns and connections to places and people outside the United States and may not return to visiting the U.S. when Trump leaves office.

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“It has to be said that Donald Trump is not the first protectionist president, it’s just gone a little bit, well, quite a bit further than what we’ve seen in the past,” she said.

McMillan agreed that both leisure and corporate travel from Canada to the United States has dropped.

“The United States generally is the largest market for travellers from Canada that are going internationally, and it’s just been almost a near complete drop-off in bookings,” he said.

“We are seeing a little bit of a warming in some regions of the United States and some of our corporate business is coming back, but by and large, we’re looking at, at least at our agency, a nearly 90-per cent drop in U.S. bookings this year compared to last.”

McMillan said the drop in travel is reminiscent of what happened during the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, this time around, McMillan said their clients have pivoted to other destinations and requests for domestic holidays, along with Europe, Mexico and South America, have all increased in bookings since February 2025.

He said their clients seemed to want to avoid going to the U.S. at first due to Trump’s comments about Canada being the 51st state and imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.

“Since then, we have seen a lot of clients discussing their concern about safety in the United States, either safety going into the U.S. or safety when they’re crossing the border,” McMillan added.

“There were a lot of stories going into summer and into the fall where foreign nationals were having increased scrutiny at the border or being detained for unknown reasons at the border, and that’s given a lot of Canadians pause to decide to take that trip to the United States. So the issues have definitely changed over the year, but the end result is still the same: that Canadians are just not interested in travelling to the United States at the moment.”

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