Skift Take
Lawmakers and travel leaders are urging the broader travel industry to make their voices heard: this U.S.-Canada land border closure must end now. The consequences have been dire for tourism, particularly in Canada where there's been zero recovery since last year's shutdown.
As destinations around the world have been safely reopening to fully vaccinated travelers and restarting their tourism industries, the lock between the U.S. and Canada — two of the most interconnected countries at the human, economic and tourism level, has been a source of great aggravation.
Open up the border. That was the gist of a renewed plea on Thursday from a joint U.S. and Canada panel, this time featuring U.S. congressional and Canadian parliamentary members, as well as travel industry leaders, moderated by U.S.-Canada relations expert Huw Williams and hosted by the Tourism Industry Association of Canada.
“Our economies are very much intertwined and we benefit from Canadians coming to patronize our sporting events, our ski resorts and festivals and vice versa,” said U.S. Rep. Chris Jacobs (D-NY) who represents a district along the border.
“The complete lockdown we’ve experienced is not consistent with science and it's very, very bad for our economy.”
Jacobs noted the Northern Border Reopening Transparency Act he introduced this month and emphasized an equally harrowing human element to the border closure, noting that his daughter has not seen her Canadian grandmother in 16 months.
Canadian Member of Parliament Nathaniel Erskine-Smith said that some hesitancy to reopen was understandable but that
