We all recall a few years ago when, like most other businesses, campgrounds needed to adapt to a pandemic that threw a monkey wrench into what had been business as usual. Campgrounds actually fared that crisis fairly well, when the public embraced camping as the second safest activity to a self-imposed home quarantine.

Today, a new crisis is impacting small businesses, including campgrounds, in more ways than ever would have been imagined, except this one has originated in the White House rather than a wet market in Wuhan. Ignoring the increase in prices of foreign imports and supplies that need to be purchased, campgrounds are dependent upon the influx of tourism, a greater and greater percentage of which has originated internationally in recent years.

In northern states in particular, campgrounds have historically depended upon a significant percentage of guests coming in from Canada. Years ago, there was actually a campground in New Jersey named Wildwood Canadian Campground (and another campground with the same name in Ohio), but each of the over 30 campgrounds in Cape May County at the time relied upon and actively marketed to and embraced Canadian tourists, primarily from Quebec, who reliably flocked to the Southern New Jersey shore each summer. There were occasional complications, such as the initial spike in fuel prices and unfavorable fluctuations in the currency exchange rates, but nothing compared to the imposition of tariffs and highly offensive comments about Canada being made the “fifty first state”.

As I write this in April of 2025, international tourists are changing their plans to avoid travel into the United States. After border enforcements, such as a Canadian woman who was detained by ICE for two weeks after her visa was revoked, have led to the detention of travelers, several countries – including Canada, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Portugal, Finland and Denmark – have issued warnings and advisories against travel into the United States, while there are other voices calling for a total boycott of travel into the country. Sadly, the United States has joined countries such as Pakistan, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras, Colombia, Egypt and Bangladesh where foreign departments of state are warning their citizens to reconsider travel to the United States, the equivalent of the U.S. State Department’s level 3 travel risk. It is only slight consolation that the United States is not included in the level 4 “do not travel” list of extremely dangerous countries such as Russia, Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Venezuela, Ukraine and North Korea.

Tourism Is Big Business

Canada has historically sent over 20 million visitors across the border in recent years, our single largest partner in tourism, with Mexico a close second. According to the US Travel Association, even a 10% reduction in Canadian visitors will translate into an economic loss of over $2 billion and the loss of 14,000 jobs in the tourism industries. This comes at a time when even our domestic travel is forecast to decline by 1.4%, according to Tourism Economics, due to weaker economic growth and decreases in disposable income and purchasing power. Overall, spending by international visitors generated $2.9 trillion in economic output in the United States in 2024, supporting 15 million jobs. When these visitors choose new destinations in 2025, they may enjoy the experiences and choose not to return to the United States, even when the political landscape ultimately changes, an indication of the long-term impact of shortsighted thinking.

Compensating for Loss of Business

In the meantime, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Although you may want to directly contact recent Canadian guests whom you had previously expected to return in 2025 (and who have not already cancelled their reservations), even that personal outreach is unlikely to be effective when it is countered by what is perceived as a much broader hostility on the part of the United States government. You will also want to exercise an extraordinary degree of flexibility in dealing with cancellations in these instances, in an attempt at maintaining long-term goodwill. Our Canadian friends and neighbors still love the United States and the American people, but their reputation for tolerance has been pushed beyond the breaking point, with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently urging Canadians to vacation at home. The highly-respected Canadian Geographic magazine has recommended 11 Canadian equivalents for vacation-at-home substitutes for the most popular U.S. tourist destinations, including Toronto’s CN Tower for New York’s Empire State Building, Alberta’s Banff and Jasper National Parks for Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, and even Old Quebec City for San Juan, Puerto Rico.

One of my company’s clients, the owner of a campground in Vermont, told me that Canadian tourists normally account for about 15% of his bookings but that he would consider himself lucky if they account for even 2% in 2025. Another client, the owner of a campground in New Hampshire, has catered to the Canadian tourism market over the years, with 80 to 85% of his guests coming from over the border. The impact upon his business is clearly going to be catastrophic. Historic Canadian tourist destinations such as Old Orchard Beach (Maine), Hampton Beach (New Hampshire), Cape Cod (Massachusetts), the Wildwoods and Cape May (New Jersey), and Virginia Beach (Virginia) are all going to feel the pain.

Fortunately, unless they are strictly stopovers between two destination points, most campgrounds consist of a combination of transient and seasonal sites, with monthly stays somewhat of a hybrid of the two, often appealing to temporary workers, people who are in the process of building a home nearby, and short-term emergency services providers. With maximum occupancy, transient sites are far more profitable, while seasonal sites provide a steady and reliable income in times of less than full occupancy. Most sites can be adapted to accommodate either type of guest and, if a sudden loss of anticipated transient business comes into play, it makes sense to promote and actively pursue a compensating number of monthly or seasonal guests.

With that in mind, my company has successfully simplified and streamlined that process for several of its clients, where a new customized form has been added to their websites, independent of the usual short-term reservation forms. The form starts with a comprehensive list of rules that apply to long-term guests, followed by arrival and departure dates, full applicant information (including the upload of a photo of each adult’s driver’s license) that will be used for background checks, a list of additional occupants, pet details, full information on the applicant’s RV (including the upload of a photo), essential contact information, and an agreement that is bound by a digital signature.

There are effective ways to make the best of a bad situation, and now is a time for creativity in order to maintain occupancy levels and keep your business profitable during these challenging times.