Good morning and welcome to day 20 (already!) of Summer 2025, a season of raised elbows from coast to coast to coast. Today we’ll look at what the numbers say about the boost to domestic tourism from U.S. travel boycotts, but also the limitations to the patriotic travel push. Plus today’s news:

Tariffs: U.S. President Trump to impose copper tariffs, in potential blow to Canadian exporters of the metal

Internal Trade: Nine provinces and one territory aim to launch direct-to-consumer alcohol sales by May, 2026

Deals: Blackstone looks at buying H&R assets as activists press REIT to do a deal

Housing: CMHC says immigration caps are contributing to lower asking rents in Canada

• At home, while Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government continues to look for cuts, yesterday’s report from the procurement ombud says spending on contracts needs "fundamental change"
• In the U.S., today is the release of the June Federal Open Market Committee minutes

If nothing else, Trump has been a terrific ambassador for Canada’s tourism industry.

His odious attacks on Canadian sovereignty, his blundering tariff policies and the very real threat of being detained at the border have spurred hundreds of thousands of Canadians to avoid the U.S., while also making Canada an attractive alternative destination for ocean-hopping European tourists.

By the numbers

I dug into the stats recently for a feature on the upside for domestic tourism. Some numbers:

• -38 per cent: the drop in the number of Canadian residents returning to Canada by vehicle from the U.S. in May
• 6.2 per cent: the annual jump in passengers boarding domestic-bound flights at Canada’s eight largest airports
• $100-billion: the projected gain in tourism spending in Canada this year, thanks to increased domestic travel and visits from overseas

Canadians have other reasons to stick close to home.

Nationally, Parks Canada has coughed up free admission to national parks and historic sites with its Canada Strong Pass, launched last month.

Indeed, as The Globe’s editorial board put this week, when it comes to the US$20.5-billion that Canadians spent on travel in the U.S. last year, “Keeping a large chunk of that cash in Canada is an effective way to make patriotism count, but it is also an opportunity to (re)discover this country.”

Elbows sagging

But let’s face it, keeping your arms up can get exhausting after a while.

While the latest national numbers for May show U.S. travel aversion was strong, there are more recent signs it may be easing, albeit slightly.

Consider this local data for June covering four border crossings between Lower Mainland, B.C. and Washington State.

The number of B.C. vehicles crossing south fell by 43 per cent in June from the same month last year, but that’s actually a rebound from the 47-per-cent annual decline in May and the 51-per-cent drop in April.

Likewise, recent anecdotal evidence suggests the domestic travel boom isn’t cut and dry.

The ins and outs of two Southampton Inns

The Southampton Inn on Long Island, New York, and the Southampton Inn located in the eponymous gem of a town on Ontario’s Lake Huron coast reflect the two sides of Canada’s staycation summer – and how rhetoric and expectations don’t always translate into reality.

I recently spoke with Dede Gotthelf, the owner of the stateside hotel. Back in April, she’d been inundated with cancellation e-mails from “vociferous Canadians who were disgusted with some of what they thought was disrespectful fighting between our two nations on our shared continent.”

Likewise, as the Canadian backlash against all-things-U.S. grew, the Ontario hotel’s owner, Kevin Smith, “thought we’d see a lot more Canadians up here,” he told me.