Many Canadian Snowbirds Are Delaying Florida Visits Until COVID-19 Eases
As if COVID-19 hasn’t done enough damage to South Florida’s tourism industry, many Canadians who for years have wintered in the Sunshine State are having second thoughts about migrating south unless the pandemic shows signs of abating.
“There are hundreds of thousands of Canadians who are on the sidelines planning not to visit
Their decision, he said, is contingent on how much longer the
“Until the border re-opens, it’s clearly going to have a less-than-positive impact on tourism from Canada,” she said.
As of Friday,
Those vast disparities have resulted in the border remaining closed to non-essential travel for nearly six months, with Prime Minister
For
By 2017, Canadian investors had brought almost 500 Canadian companies to
An estimated 3.5 million Canadians visited
Canadian tourism generated more than half a billion dollars in state tax revenue, more than enough to fund the public safety, transportation and library systems of Florida’s major counties.
Canadians purchased more than
Since 2006, when
Forget said RBC is still hearing from Canadians who are interested in
But anecdotally, the deal volume hasn’t come close to matching pre-pandemic levels among a group of inveterate buyers.
“I’m not getting as many calls as I usually do,” he said. “I haven’t heard much. The last I have had contact with anyone was right before we were shutting down.”
Another telltale sign: “There’s no Canadian license plates. I don’t see any.”
Will they feel safe?
In an interview,
“Are they going to feel welcome; are they going to feel safe?” she said. “We’ve already been contacted by some of them.”
Besides the virus, they are concerned about their ability to buy travel insurance that contains coverage for COVID-19, which is expensive.
“It’s tough to gauge the number of Canadians who will actually come to
“With the economic base that we have built between us, we know it is going to be important to keep that relationship growing,” she said.
Many Canadians hastily retreated to
A July survey by the Ipsos Reid polling firm in
The Canadian government is also advising its citizens to avoid traveling abroad because of the pandemic. If they do leave the country, they will have to quarantine themselves for 14 days upon returning home.
Oddly, despite the ban on cross-border travel by car, bus or train, it is still possible for travelers to board a plane in
But a slight downturn in month-to-month COVID cases has some real estate brokers believing it won’t be long before the snowbirds start flying south.
“No Realtor down here is bragging about a lot of
For some, the decision to head south may come down to the brutal bite of Canada’s winter weather.
“January in
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