Canadian visitation to the U.S. is declining. What does that mean for the Hilton Head area?

As travel to the U.S. from Canada declines, some of the Hilton Head area’s Canadian regulars are considering their options.

Canada sends more visitors to the U.S. than any other country, and Canadians also make up the largest share of foreign tourists to Hilton Head Island, Beaufort County, and all of South Carolina. But return car trips to Canada from the U.S. declined for six months in a row, falling by 33% in June compared to the same month in 2024. This, experts say, is thought to be a result of President Trump’s stated desire to make Canada the “51st state,” newly-imposed tariffs between the two countries, and concerns about an escalating exchange rate. The Canadian loonie is currently valued at $1.37 per U.S. dollar.

“We are seeing some negative sentiment based on a number of factors–the ‘51st state’ talk, tariffs, and there have been some other issues,” said Stephen Fine, president and managing editor of Snowbird Advisor, a resource for Canadians who spend their winters elsewhere. “People are quite upset.”

It’s a mixed bag in the Hilton Head area. Some Canadians said they won’t be deterred by international events, while others are reconsidering their visits to the U.S. Debbie Clements, who owns property in Beachwalk at Shipyard, said she has rented to a Canadian couple for the past 11 years. For the first time in over a decade, the couple decided to cancel their three-month stay in Clements’ two-bedroom condo for early 2026. They were worried about the possibility of a rising exchange rate and anti-Canadian sentiment, which Clements said took her by surprise.

“Somebody they knew repeated a story of a Canadian who came across the border to get gas. Someone saw their license plate and told them to ‘go back to Canada,’” she said. “I said, ‘do you think that’s how you’re going to be treated?’ They said, ‘no, but we don’t know, maybe things changed.’ I tried telling them that Hilton Head Island loves Canadian guests, but I could not change their minds.”

How important are Canadians to Hilton Head’s tourism?

Canada is the Hilton Head area’s number one source of international visitors, and it also sends a population of snowbirds to the Lowcountry’s beaches each winter for months at a time. On the tourism side, Canada sent 328,000 visitors to South Carolina in 2023, accounting for about 63% of international tourists, according to a Travel South USA study released late last year. Four hours north of Hilton Head Island, Myrtle Beach welcomes its Canadian visitors every year with a Can-Am Days celebration each spring.

“It’s more Myrtle Beach than Hilton Head in terms of South Carolina, but there’s still a contingency of snowbirds that go to Hilton Head,” Fine said.

Unlike a snowbird, who stays for months at a time, a tourist is considered someone who visits for less than 30 days. The Trump Administration now requires some visitors who plan to stay in the U.S. for more than 30 days to register with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Foreigners make up a small percentage of travelers to Hilton Head Island, accounting for 3-5% of total annual visitation. But international tourists generally stay longer and spend more money than domestic travelers, said Charlie Clark, vice president of communications for the Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce.

Total visitor spending in the Hilton Head area was about $2.8 billion last year.

Like Hilton Head, Beaufort County’s international tourists account for 3-5% of the overall picture, said Robb Wells, president and CEO of Visit Beaufort. The visitor’s bureau doesn’t directly advertise or track its international markets, he said, because its money goes a lot further across the southeast.

“Our target structure has always been, let’s market to the state of South Carolina, so we don’t have to spend as much money introducing Beaufort,” Wells said.

Beaufort’s only direct work with international markets is with tour companies, Wells said. They make sure Beaufort is on a list of destinations for tour buses making stops. Canadians tend to stop in Beaufort for a night or two on their way down to Hilton Head; for every visitor from overseas that comes through Beaufort’s visitor center, there are two Canadian visitors, Wells said.

“The international traveler will fly into South Carolina and they will make an eight to 15-day voyage. They’re going to hit the hot spots–Myrtle Beach is a huge Canadian market, and Charleston is a little different, because they get Canadians and overseas traffic,” he said. “We get the day visitation for folks staying in Hilton Head. They want to explore it, because maybe they saw it in a movie–they’re ‘Forrest Gump’ fans.”

So far this year, that visitation has softened a bit, Wells said. But it’s too early to define the scope of what is happening.

“We don’t know what we’re going to see this year. We’ll know more come November or December,” he said. “There is some negative sentiment, but we don’t know how big that sentiment is.”

“We don’t want to let one individual ruin our retirement plans”

Dave Guthmann and his wife have been coming to Hilton Head for four years. They stumbled upon the island on the way back home to Ottawa, Ontario from Cape Coral, Florida in 2022. Winter wasn’t over yet, and Hilton Head was eight hours from Cape Coral, making it the perfect place to stop for a few days. Guthmann and his wife booked a ten day stay and immediately fell in love.

“The following year, we spent the entire month of March on Hilton Head Island, and since then we’ve more or less settled on nine to ten weeks each winter,” he said.

While they’re here, the Guthmanns stay in a townhome and villa community called Treetops, renting from an Ohio-based couple. They like to ride bikes, walk on trails with their dog, go to the beach, and drive into Bluffton, Beaufort, and Savannah.

Despite the decline in travel and icy U.S./Canada relations, Guthmann said he is confident that their 2026 trip to Hilton Head will be as good as ever. He and his wife are in their mid 60s, and he said they know they only have so many years of good health to enjoy traveling.

“Yes, there is a grumpy old man in the White House, but we don’t want to let one individual ruin our retirement plans,” he said. “All the Americans we’ve met on the Island have been extremely friendly, and many have even apologized for what has been going on.”

The couple is more than happy to support the local economy through shopping, restaurants, and other activities, he said.

“If we started hearing about Canadians getting their tires slashed, et cetera, well, we’d certainly re-evaluate our plans, but I don’t think it will ever come to that,” Guthmann said.