Canadians are boycotting travel to the U.S. in a backlash against President Trump’s tariff policies and “51st state” rhetoric. Travel analysts are concerned about consumer confidence and spending in the U.S. because of inflation and other economic stresses.
But, while Colorado ski resorts that depend heavily on out-of-state visitors are left to wonder what impact those headwinds will have on their business this winter, resorts that cater primarily to Colorado skiers began the 2025-26 ski season with optimism.
“In terms of our season pass and forward-looking bookings, everything’s looking positive,” Copper Mountain general manager Dustin Lyman said in October at a roundtable involving Summit County ski resort bosses. “It’s looking like it’s going to be a great season.”
Those in charge at Arapahoe Basin and Loveland, which primarily attract Front Range day skiers, echoed his remarks.
“We’re pretty optimistic,” said Rob Goodell, chief operating officer at Loveland. “Our early season sales — ticket products, lesson bookings — are all up compared to last season. Very good excitement about the season coming up, very positive.”
“Ditto for us,” said Goodell’s counterpart at A-Basin, Alan Henceroth. “I think it’s going to be a great year.”
Tim Wolfe, director of the Colorado Tourism Office, said overall bookings for the winter in Colorado are running flat, compared to last year, or slightly up. The addition of daily United Airlines flights from Mexico City to Denver, which began in October and will run through the end of March, should help. Bookings to the U.S. from Mexico for the ski season were up 35% over last year as of Oct. 31, according to Inntopia, a travel industry data source.
“Mexico is one of our biggest international travel markets for the state of Colorado,” Wolfe said.
Bookings to the U.S. from Western Europe were up 9.6%, but the Canadian boycott resulted in a 53% decline in bookings from north of the 48th parallel. Claudia Laroye, a Canadian travel journalist who writes for national Canadian newspapers and magazines, said the boycott has been “completely spontaneous,” without prompting by any organizing entity.
“It has been a grassroots movement by people who are upset, anxious, fearful and angry that this is happening,” Laroye said. “The economic tariff thing is hurting my friends and neighbors in different parts of the country. It’s creating economic anxiety that is just not helpful when you’re trying to plan a fantastic ski trip holiday for your family.”
Canadians took Trump’s rhetoric about Canada becoming the 51st state personally, an insult to Canadian pride and sovereignty.
“It’s really disconcerting,” Laroye said.
Tom Foley, senior vice president of business intelligence at Inntopia, doesn’t see the boycott ending anytime soon because it has become “societally entrenched,” adding that Canadian ski resorts are capturing business that might otherwise have come to the U.S.
In the U.S. economy, consumer confidence has been trending down for the past 12 months. Patrick Scholes, a Wall Street analyst for Truist Securities who specializes in the ski and hospitality industry, believes Colorado’s more expensive resorts that tend to attract wealthier travelers will do OK — even when those lodging prices soar during the Christmas holidays.
“We are up against an overall macroeconomic background in the United States with pretty lethargic travel trends,” Scholes said. “That said, where you do see strength in travel is with the upper end (income brackets). That customer is doing fairly well. People feel good about their stock portfolios, they feel good about their real estate holdings, and generally, that segment of the economy, their jobs are doing OK. Especially at Christmas and New Year’s at some of these resorts, that’s about as upper-end a vacation as you’re going to find.”
Aspen-based Ski.com is a travel site set up to book flights, lodging, lift tickets, equipment rentals and other travel needs at resorts all over the world. Chief marketing officer Dan Sherman said their bookings for Colorado have been strong, but there are concerns.
“We are pacing up year-over-year, so everything is looking good,” Sherman said. “The economy, which I view via the stock market, continues to boom. But, consumer confidence does not follow that, so there are a lot of unknowns of what’s going to happen, and sometimes that can be day to day.”
Tourism experts say travelers are changing their booking habits, booking closer to the time they want to travel than in the past, which can make long-range forecasting suspect.
“If we’re looking at December, January, February, March – the key months – we are flat or slightly down,” said Julia Theisen, tourism director for the Town of Snowmass Village, which includes the Snowmass ski resort. “What we’ve seen over the past year is more last-minute booking patterns. It’s hard to say right now, but I would say we don’t feel overly concerned about winter performance.”
Travel isn’t the only factor related to the economy that ski area operators are watching. Higher tariffs affect them, too.
“I look at our retail department and we’ve got orders coming in, we don’t know what the final invoice is going to be, because of tariffs,” Goodell said. “Taking delivery of a snowcat, there’s another $30,000 (tariff charge) because it came over on a boat. There are a lot of unknowns and variables that make it a little challenging at times. We try our best to not pass all those costs on to our guests, but things have gotten more expensive.”
