Roughly 85,000 fewer international visitors entered the U.S. through Maine in May compared to the same month a year earlier, according to data from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, continuing a depressed period that started in February.
Total visits last month numbered 176,387 compared with 261,020 in May 2024. The overwhelming majority of those travelers arrived in passenger vehicles crossing the U.S. Canada border.
Prior to January, when visits hit a seasonal low, Maine was on track to see more visitors than in any of the three previous years.
But instead of leveling out in February as the numbers have in past years before climbing toward a peak in August, visits continued to drop for three more months, hitting a low point in April before bouncing back slightly in May.
The drop corresponds to a period of tense relations between the U.S. and Canada stemming from threats and punitive actions by President Donald Trump, ranging from tariffs on Canadian imports to suggesting he would annex the country to be the 51st U.S. state.
Trump has also been broadly hostile toward foreigners, seeking to enact travel bans on a number of countries the administration has labeled terrorist threats, threatening tariffs against countries that have traditionally been easy allies of the U.S., and running an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign that has featured daylight abductions and an often unclear legal process.
Gov. Janet Mills has tried to send a different message to Canadians, emphasizing a relationship between the two countries “founded not only [on] a mutual financial and economic advantage, but on centuries-old familial and cultural bonds that have always superseded politics.”
Maine has been hit especially hard by the drop in international visits. The dip of 32 percent from May 2024 is significantly more than the change in the national average, which is down by just 4.4 percent in the same period.