Tariffs an opportunity for local tourism to shine

By Lethbridge Herald on March 7, 2025.

Dominika Wojcik, senior director of communication with Tourism Lethbridge, says that there is hope to local tourism as a response to U.S. tariffs, as Canadians may tend to vacation locally and some Americans might be willing to visit Canada to show their support. Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com

With the threat of tariffs from the United States still lingering, Tourism Lethbridge says there is a lot of uncertainty on what exactly is going to happen, and they have yet to see how this may affect people’s spending which includes traveling for Tourism, but they are hoping for positive impacts.  

Dominika Wojcik, senior director of communications at Tourism Lethbridge, says that, based on the desire for Canadians to travel within Canada instead of going south for their vacation, she is hopeful this will increase tourism into southern Alberta and particularly into Lethbridge. 

“I think there was stats from 2024 where Canadians spent almost $20 billion on US travel,” says Wojcik. “So imagine what that would look like if all that was spent right here in Canada?”

She says Lethbridge is well positioned as a destination and has much to offer visitors, so she’s hopeful the impact of tariffs will be less if people either stay here for their vacation or others come from outside of the city. 

“We have so many great opportunities for people between our agri-food, outdoor adventures, we have some great local attractions, local businesses and it’s affordable for people to come and stay here,” says Wojcik. 

She believes there is a lot of positivity coming from the United States as well, where people are wanting to show their support for Canada and are willing to come here and spend their money. 

“We are seeing that there is a lot of our U.S. partners who are saying it’s not them who are putting these tariffs on, so they still want to come and enjoy Canada and everything we have to offer,” says Wojcik. 

With our proximity to Montana, Tourism Lethbridge hopes Americans will be able to cross the border more efficiently, especially with the U.S. dollar worth around $1.30 Canadian, which makes it even more affordable for them to come up. 

That said, Wojcik adds that, at the moment, there are still too many unknowns to be able to plan accordingly. But Tourism Lethbridge is one of the organizations that has partnered with Economic Development Lethbridge to develop the Lethbridge Region Economic Resilience Task Force, in order to find a way to mitigate the possible impact of tariffs on the economy as a whole. 

“Everything is still so new,” she says. “But we have always had some strategies that we were going into the US market, especially with our proximity to Montana, so we hope we can push those a little bit further and see what happens.”

She adds they are also focusing a lot on Canadians and “staycations.”

“We know how great the economic impact is when visitors come here, and we definitely have an opportunity to build on that and have more of those dollars spent in our city when they are not being spent in the U.S.”

Wojcik says Tourism Lethbridge will also be attending an event that was already set in motion prior to the tariffs threat, and is now is more important than ever to attend. 

“In May, we’ll be going to an event called Rendez-vous Canada which is being held in Winnipeg this year, where we get to sit down with people internationally,” she says. “So we’ll see people from Korea, Japan and all over the world that are interested in Canada as a destination.”

She says the idea is to sell them on the idea of bringing their tour groups here, which is the “travel trade” approach Tourism Lethbridge has been using for several years. 

“We are hoping that, as Canada, we can go in strong and united and hopefully a lot of those tourism operators will bring more of their business to Canada than they have brought before, and we are hoping to put Lethbridge on their radar,” says Wojcik. 

Their hope is to sell Lethbridge as a destination for those who may have visited the bigger centres like Calgary and Banff, and are ready for a change. Lethbridge is the perfect place for that. 

“Maybe they are now looking for a unique experience and this is our opportunity to shine,” says Wojcik.