‘The welcome mat’: Mayor of N.S. town expects spike in American visitors by ferry | Globalnews.ca (2025)

The mayor of Yarmouth, N.S., expects to see a spike in American visitors coming to the area on the CAT ferry this upcoming tourist season.

Mayor Pam Mood was in Washington, D.C., recently and said she heard from Americans who told her they were eager to vacation in Canada this summer.

All this amid an ongoing trade war between Canada and the United States, and a tense political climate with U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments that he’d like to see Canada become their 51st state.

“This is just a guess from the Mayor of the town where we’re the welcome mat for Bay Ferries, but I think the CAT will be pretty full this summer with people coming over and spending their money and enjoying all Nova Scotia offers because we have an awful lot here,” said Mood.

Mood said the relatively weak Canadian dollar could be attractive to Americans. A push by officials like her to welcome tourists can’t hurt either, she said.

“The message I gave when I was in Washington was, ‘You are our neighbours. You are our closest friends, our closest allies. That doesn’t change because one or two people are doing some things that we disagree with,'” she said.

“How’s that for being diplomatic? That doesn’t change. We still love you. We want you to come here.”

The CAT travels between Yarmouth, N.S., and Bar Harbour, Maine, between May 15 and Oct. 15.

Bay Ferries Ltd., which operates the CAT, reported around 49,000 passengers last year on the route. That’s an increase of nearly 11,000 passengers from 2023.

The company said it was too soon to tell what’s ahead for the 2025 season.

This past October, the province of Nova Scotia said it would provide financial support for at least two more years to the private ferry service. A progress report said the heavily subsidized ferry is not more expensive than comparable services.

The progress report said that during the 2023 sailing season, visitors using the ferry spent more than $20 million in Nova Scotia and stayed in the province for an average of 8.2 nights.

Mood admitted the statistics for Canadians choosing to travel south of the border will be less optimistic. Polls show Maritimers — like the rest of Canada — are travelling less to the United States.

According to a survey from February, 62 per cent of respondents in the Maritimes said they expect to travel to the U.S. less because of Trump. That’s compared to 37 per cent back in December 2024.

“Those numbers, it’s already been shown it’s down,” said Mood.

“But it’s not important — us going over there. It’s important how many people are coming from the U.S.to Canada. That’s economics.”

Other areas of the province have reported growing interest from American tourists.

Erika Banting, the owner of Tattingstone Inn in Wolfville, N.S., recently told Global News their American clientele were eager to see what a Canadian life had to offer.

Banting, who is also president of Inns of Nova Scotia, said visitors have been telling her that they’re looking into residency and coming for job interviews.

“They are taking interviews. One guest in particular, she’s a nurse and she’s looking to relocate to Canada,” she said.

American visitors on the rise

According to Tourism Nova Scotia — a division of the province’s Department of Communities, Culture, Tourism and Heritage — visitation to the province declined slightly in 2024 compared to 2023, as the industry continues to recover post-pandemic.

In 2024, about two million non-resident visitors came to Nova Scotia.

There were declines in visitors from Atlantic Canada and Ontario, which is the province’s second-biggest market.

However, visitation from the U.S. increased in 2024 by 11 per cent. There were 172,000 American visitors to the province in 2024, which is 17,000 more than in 2023.

A recent poll by Halifax-based Narrative Research found the majority of residents in the capital city don’t plan to hold a grudge against American visitors — regardless of the political climate.

According to the findings, 66 per cent of respondents said they would be “as welcoming” to American tourists for the remainder of 2025, and nine per cent said they would be “more welcoming.”

When it came to the perceived benefits of tourism, 78 per cent said they believed the benefits of tourists outweighed the downsides.