What last year’s numbers may signal about Canadian tourism to Maine in 2026

During the quiet winter season in Old Orchard Beach, Fred Kennedy looks at key data points to plan for the year ahead: advance bookings, how long customers plan to stay and weather trends.
Kennedy, who owns the Alouette Beach Resort and two other hotels in town, also monitors the exchange rate for the Canadian dollar.
He knows his repeat visitors from Maine’s northern neighbor might be less likely to come if their money won’t take them as far on this side of the border.
“That really does affect Canadians’ willingness to pay a premium to leave Canada,” he said.
Federal data shows fewer Canadians visited the United States in 2025 amid economic pressures and political tensions. Border crossings were down and the exchange rate for Canadians was up.
In Maine — where some residents in the northernmost towns cross the border every day and coastal hotels post signs in French — the dip contributed to slight decreases in the overall number of summer visitors and their total spending, according to the Maine Office of Tourism.
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Officials predict they will see more of the same in 2026.
“I don’t expect that we’d see a bounce back at this point,” Carolann Ouellette, director of the state’s tourism office, said.
LESS TRAFFIC AT THE BORDER
New data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that the number of travelers entering Maine by land dropped 25% from 2024 to 2025.
That number tracks with the tourism office’s predictions for the year.
“Canada is such an important market to Maine simply because of our long history of welcoming Canadians to Maine, more than just for vacation, but often for visits to family and friends or just shopping and entertainment,” Ouellette said.
Kathy Dyer, executive director at the Maine Campground Owners Association, attended an RV show in Montreal last winter, where she said Canadians spoke kindly but weren’t interested in her pamphlets. Still, she’ll be back this winter.
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“We want to keep reaching out to them and inviting them back and letting them know that they’re always welcome,” Dyer said.
A SLOWER SUMMER
Ouellette said Canadians accounted for 4% of overall visitors to Maine this summer, down 3% from the same time last year.
Canadian tourists make up a small share of the market, but that number had been steadily increasing since the pandemic. In 2024, Canadians accounted for nearly 800,000 visitors and spent nearly $500 million in the state.
“It naturally concerns us when anything deters them from coming here as the impact is felt throughout Maine,” Ouellette said.
Data for the full year won’t be available until spring, but the Maine Office of Tourism reported more than 7 million total visitors for the summer alone, down 7% from the previous year. Direct spending dropped too, but not as much.
“We had a little bit of a drop in visitation overall, but spending was pretty steady,” Ouellette said, adding that U.S. travel helped offset the Canadian drop.
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At the Alouette, Kennedy said a strong summer helped balance out a weaker spring and fall.
“We had very good weather, and we made up for what might have been a drop in Canadian guests with American guests,” he said. “In the shoulder seasons, when all our guests are important, we might have lost a few Canadian guests that resulted in a little bit lower numbers than we’d like to see.”
In Old Orchard Beach, a popular destination for Canadian tourists, the predictions for 2025 made many business owners anxious. Kim Howard, executive director of the local chamber of commerce, found the reality wasn’t as dire as many feared. Some businesses felt the impact more than others, she said, but good weather and new marketing helped.
“We all did a collective breath after the summer,” she said.
The Old Orchard Beach Chamber of Commerce, for the first time, ran an online campaign targeting new visitors — in particular from Pennsylvania, where residents have increasingly requested printed guides. Howard said the chamber is still working on its budget for the upcoming year and hasn’t decided yet whether to run the campaign again, but she did see an increase in web traffic.
FEWER CANADIANS ON THE TURNPIKE
The Maine Turnpike stretches 109 miles from Kittery to Augusta. Even though its northernmost point is still hours from the border, data shows fewer Canadians traveled the toll highway this year.
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In 2025, the average daily number of cash transactions from Canadian vehicles was down from the previous year by more than 40% in some months and nearly 60% in June.
Cash-paying customers likely represent Canadian tourists who travel to Maine less frequently, while Canadians who have Maine E-ZPass accounts may cross the border more often but represent a much smaller percentage of traffic, MTA spokesperson Rebecca Grover said.
“Canadian traffic was down over the summer and has started to rebound,” Grover said.
Grover said it’s not clear why the number of transactions spiked so much in December, although weather and holiday shipping could be factors.
These drivers represent a very small percentage of overall traffic, so the Turnpike Authority has said the decline didn’t have a significant impact on revenue or operations. While the data for December isn’t available yet, overall traffic in 2025 was generally on par with the previous year.
A WEAKER EXCHANGE RATE
The Canadian dollar has gotten weaker in recent years. In 2025, Canadians had to spend nearly $1.40 for every U.S. dollar. In 2021, that rate was $1.25.
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“They have lost purchasing power to the U.S. dollar,” said Stefano Tijerina, a senior lecturer at the University of Maine who teaches courses including the history of U.S. and Canadian business relations.
That drop isn’t happening in a vacuum, though. Tijerina said the Canadian economy is hugely dependent on the U.S. economy; 85% of Canadian trade is with the U.S.
“The U.S. dollar has also lost its power in relation to other currencies,” he said. “If our dollar goes down, their dollar goes down.”
Tijerina said the relationship between the U.S. and Canada changed so dramatically in 2025 that he was hesitant to predict what might happen in 2026. The emotional factors, he said, are as important as the economic ones.
Brian Langley, board chairperson at the Maine Tourism Association and owner of Union River Lobster Pot in Ellsworth, said he and his wife sometimes visit Canada in the offseason to shop holiday sales across the border.
“Our dollar goes extremely well,” he said, “on the flip side.”