Hollywood, Florida
On a sunny and heat late-February day at Richard’s Motel in Hollywood, Florida, company principally from Quebec and Ontario dipped into the swimming pool and gathered for morning espresso and dialog in a courtyard the resort’s Quebecois proprietor calls the Parc de l’Amitié, or Friendship Park.
The motel’s aesthetic mixes Florida and the far north. Here a snow man statue and wood fence lined with Canadian license plates, there a sea turtle statue and a tiki bar.
Only one factor appeared off on this balmy high-season morning — a Vacancy signal illuminated to the fitting of the motel’s workplace door.
Come winter, seashore cities like this one dotting the Atlantic Coast stretch of Florida surrounding Fort Lauderdale have lengthy brimmed with French Canadian vacationers and different snowbirds who arrive for heat and sunshine.
Alongside Florida’s well-known seashores, they get pleasure from Canadian-owned eating places serving a few of their favourite meals, reveals that includes a few of Quebec’s greatest homegrown stars who fly in to carry out and different glimmers of dwelling which have sprung up in the world.
But this winter wasn’t what Richard’s Motel proprietor Richard Clavet and different hoteliers in the world had hoped for. Destinations like Greater Fort Lauderdale, lengthy a draw for these searching for a winter warm-up, illustrate how conflicted many once-frequent Florida guests really feel about visiting now — and what a decline in visits means for native companies.
“Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of issues. And surprisingly, we were expecting the Trump administration to come in — more prosperity, everything will be going great,” mentioned Clavet, a twin Canadian and US citizen who mentioned he voted for Trump in 2024.
February 2025 was one among his busiest months on the seven motels and extended-stay properties he owns in the world that largely goal French Canadians, he mentioned.
But when the tariffs on Canadian items took impact in early March final 12 months, Clavet mentioned, the cancellations began rolling in — together with from repeat company who, come April, usually reserve for the next winter earlier than they’ve even began their drives again north to Canada.
“A lot of people started to cancel and they stopped reserving. A lot of them were, I would say, polite, and not necessarily saying their reason for cancelling, saying they got sick or making excuses instead,” Clavet mentioned.
But a few of his previous company have been extra trustworthy about their motivations.
“One of them cancelled and we called him back and said, ‘Sir, you’re leaving $1,000 on the table, the $1000 deposit.’ And he was very firm. He said, ‘I’m not going over there with that dictator of yours,’” mentioned Clavet, who referred to as final spring a “disaster” as a consequence of all of the cancelled bookings at his properties.
“The impact of Trump’s policies — or the perception of them — was enormous last March and April,” he mentioned.
This winter season, too, noticed a storm of cancellations in addition to loyal company from years previous failing to re-book, mentioned Clavet, with some opting to trip in locations just like the Dominican Republic and Mexico as a substitute.
He put all his efforts into advertising, providing particular costs and posting images on his Richard’s Motel Family of Lodgings Facebook web page of company having fun with the weekly “Soirée Hot-Dog” grill-outs or Bingo night time gatherings beneath the palm timber in the Parc de l’Amitié, whereas it dumped snow up north.
“I’m working really hard to overcome the effect, but it’s serious,” mentioned Clavet. He did handle to drum up some enterprise and felt “satisfied” by his efforts.
He was eager for a late-season bump in bookings, too, after a Quebec YouTuber went viral lately after visiting one among Clavet’s properties with the aim of “rescuing” a Canadian in Florida with the provide of a free flight dwelling (spoiler: no one needed to go away).
“With business, you never know. You might get hit by a hurricane or something else, life is full of cycles,” he mentioned.
Canadians are far and away the most important worldwide tourism marketplace for the Greater Fort Lauderdale space, mentioned Stacy Ritter, president and CEO of Visit Lauderdale, who has lived in the world since 1974.
“I do not remember a winter without seeing tons of Canadian license plates. So it has been important to this destination for at least a half a century. We get about a million Canadians visiting this destination each year,” she mentioned.
Airport arrivals from Canada from 2025 by means of March of this 12 months at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport have been down roughly 7%, she mentioned.
Ritter mentioned two locations, in explicit, in the Greater Fort Lauderdale space have been focusing on French Canadian guests for the final half-century.
A stretch of U.S. Highway 1 simply south of Fort Lauderdale, dwelling to Hollywood and Hallandale Beach, has turn into referred to as “Little Quebec” due to the variety of French-speaking Canadian snowbirds the world has drawn to modest accommodations right here over the course of a long time.
And native hoteliers like Clavet are feeling the hit of a financially chillier winter.
To ensure, the Sunshine State’s huge tourism trade remains to be buzzing alongside, in response to figures from Visit Florida, with an estimated 143.3 million guests in 2025 — up .2% from 2024. More than 90% of these have been US home vacationers, making Florida the No. 1 home journey vacation spot.
But the two.9 million Canadians who visited Florida final 12 months represented a virtually 15% drop from 2024. The state says Canadians nonetheless made up 2% of the full guests, in line with previous visitation.
Just a pair blocks south of Richard’s Motel alongside U.S. Highway 1, on the one-story Curtis Inn, proprietor Jay Gandhi painted a bleak image of how his traditionally busiest time of the 12 months went this season.
“We’re suffering right now,” he mentioned, admitting to having lowered his charges into the double digits at one level with hopes of filling rooms.
Guests on the 28-room motel centered round a courtyard pool are principally French Canadians in the course of the winter months, and so they normally e-book stays of two to 6 weeks, Gandhi mentioned.
In early March, he had 20 empty rooms and no bookings for any Canadians in any respect for the month of April.
By late-March, Gandhi estimated this winter’s Canadian enterprise had been down for him by a minimum of 50% in comparison with final 12 months. And he was already worrying about subsequent 12 months’s snowbird season, with the same old deposits not coming in.
While a few of his lacking enterprise was full of folks reserving pre- and post-cruise stays and different short-term vacationers, Gandhi mentioned he misses the Canadians, who have a tendency to return for longer and deal with his rooms and suites like their very own properties.
“When they’d go out, they’d turn off all the lights and even the water if there was a small leak. They’d say to me, ‘It’s going to cost you money.’ Those are the kinds of customers we love,” he mentioned.
The forex trade, with the US greenback nonetheless robust in opposition to Canada’s, additionally impacted guests from Canada this 12 months. And Canadians additionally report woes in regards to the paperwork necessities when driving south throughout the US border for an prolonged keep.
But politics are what’s stored Canadians like Alain Gingras away.
For 12 winters, the 62-year-old, whose profession permits him to take a while off in the course of the coldest months of the 12 months, drove south from his dwelling in Saint-Hubert, close to Montreal, to heat up at cellular dwelling resorts in locations like close by Deerfield Beach and Pompano.
Spending a couple of weeks or extra thawing out in the Florida solar throughout Quebec’s harshest season was a pleasure he eagerly anticipated, mentioned Gingras, who spent his days {golfing}, enjoyable and dipping in the pool.
Lately, nevertheless, Gingras has opted to fly to Mexico as a substitute for his winter heat up. And whereas he says costs are creeping up south of the US border, he has no plans to return to Florida so long as President Trump is in workplace.
“I always say half of me is American and the other half is Canadian, and when I go to Florida it’s my second house. I have fun with the Americans, they’re very good people,” he mentioned.
But he discovered it inconceivable to not really feel affected by Trump’s rhetoric.
“He touched the Canadians, it’s impossible to like him. I don’t give my money,” mentioned Gingras, who’s already rented an house with a swimming pool in Playa del Carmen for subsequent winter’s escape.
But as Ritter famous, there are nonetheless loads of Canadians touring to Florida. And whereas the drop in visitation is critical, “it is not as significant as the US is seeing nationwide,” she mentioned.
The balmy sunshine and ocean views certainly assist.
Along the roughly 2.5-mile-long Hollywood Beach Broadwalk, the Canadian-owned EZeat Restaurant serves “real Canadian poutine” (cheese curds in gravy over fries) and Montreal smoked meat sandwiches in addition to burgers, membership sandwiches and different all-American fare.
Andy Buntic mentioned the pedestrian promenade on the Atlantic Ocean in entrance of the restaurant he owns with a number of members of the family was much less busy this winter than in seasons previous. Initially, he mentioned, he was fearful about how his enterprise may be impacted by “politics and the economy.”
But enterprise at EZeat, which opened in 2024, boomed this winter, Buntic mentioned, because of help from home vacationers from the US and locals in addition to Québécois vacationers that hunt down his place as one of many few Canadian companies fronting the ocean.
“There’s less people on the boardwalk but there’s more people who consume,” he mentioned.
Many Canadian snowbirds who flew south have been sated in different methods in Florida, too. Despite a couple of chilly fronts that blasted the state this winter, solar and heat have been in ample provide.
Mimi Gilbert, 80, needed to spend a while away from her dwelling in Quebec this winter and mentioned she needed to go someplace that felt secure and the place she knew she might get by with talking principally French.
She rented one among Clavet’s lodging for a number of weeks “totally blind,” she says, explaining she knew nothing in regards to the location in Florida and had by no means visited earlier than. She’s loved her time a lot she’s already planning to return for longer subsequent winter.
“I feel secure here. People come and look for me if I don’t show up to drink my coffee. I’m isolated where I live in Quebec, but here I’ve found a community. We’re like a big family that lives together for a short time — and the weather is beautiful,” she mentioned.
Gabriel Tessier, additionally from Quebec, rented a studio suite for a number of weeks in January and February at Green Seas Motel in Hollywood. When he informed associates again dwelling that he was headed to Florida, some requested why he’d need to come this 12 months, he mentioned, contemplating what they’d all heard on the information.
“I told them, ‘No judgement, I want to find out for myself,’” mentioned Tessier, including that he’s already satisfied a couple of of them to hitch him subsequent 12 months.
“They know I confirmed it’s a great place, a good area, the accommodations, the friendship,” mentioned Tessier.
He’s loving his each day life in Florida.
“I even went to a nude beach here, would you believe it? At 71 years old,” he mentioned.
“The time remaining is smaller and smaller, there’s no time to lose. I’m having a ball.”
Nonetheless, the Canadian guests who didn’t make the journey this 12 months are sorely missed, mentioned Ritter with Visit Lauderdale.
“Canadian travelers stay longer than domestic travelers and spend more money. And when you’re a community where tourism is your number one industry, any dip is significant. Canadian visitors keep our residents employed through the money they spend,” she mentioned, calling them “critically important” from a visitation perspective.
Guy Picher, who’s co-owner of Shell Motel, alongside U.S. Highway 1 in Hollywood, mentioned his clientele has modified this season, with fewer Canadians and extra cruise ship passengers who have been in and out.
Demand in the previous has been so good that he would usually be calling folks in the winter to say, “Sorry we have nothing left, or just one night.”
That’s as a result of sometimes throughout February and March, Picher would subject 20 to 40 requests per day from potential company, principally French-speaking Canadians, asking for costs and availability.
“If I get one a day now, it’s good.”
Terry Ward is a Florida-based journey author and freelance journalist in Tampa who desires of spending extra time in Quebec.