Tariffs and Tourism: The Double Whammy
This week I asked a nearby winery owner how tourism traffic has been this year. Good overall, he said, but still down. How many Canadians have you seen? Two.
True story. This is a mid-sized, high-quality Finger Lakes destination winery with a great locavore deli in a scenic location. In a typical year they’ll welcome tens of thousands of visitors from over a dozen countries, especially Canada.
Not this year. As a perspective, we live just a couple hours drive from two US-Canada border crossings: Niagara Falls, and Thousand Islands. Both regions have regional “wine trails” whose wineries normally depend heavily on nearby Canadian visitors in their tasting rooms. Not his year.
The various disputes between traditionally close allies are having a devastating effect on the American wine industry. American wines (95% Californian) are now essentially shut out of Canadian wine stores from coast to coast, a $1.1 billion annual loss, so those wines need to find a new home (back in the US, crowding shelves and wine lists in other wine states).
The Canadian citizenry is also largely boycotting US tourist destinations from north to south and east to west. For wine regions near the borders, that means emptier tasting rooms and less business for local gas stations, hotels, restaurants, and tax bases.
At this point we don’t have any statistics on the impact, but a popular winery which has seen two Canadians this year is some startling anecdotal evidence of the impact of tariffs.