The number of travelers crossing the Canadian border into Maine is dropping in 2025 compared to last year

Numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show a 26 drop in March from a year ago.

Governor Janet Mills is blaming the drop on tariff’s imposed by President Trump.

“On the eve of another summer tourism season, we’re once again facing a great economic uncertainty,” said Mills. “This time the uncertainty is not being driven by a pandemic but by harmful rhetoric and painful tariffs imposed by the federal government, the current occupant of the White House.”

Mills made the comment at the Governor’s Conference on Tourism in Bangor Thursday.

She said 5 percent of visitors to Maine are from Canada and the state could lose 225,000 Canadian tourists this year over to tensions created by the federal government.

Mills said Maine can’t afford to let Canadian visitors feel unwelcome.

Numbers from U.S. Customs and Border Protection show a drop in border crossings since January, when crossings were slightly higher than in 2024. Crossings dipped, especially by land, in February, and to a lesser extent in March.

There were 6,000 more border crossings by land from Canada to Maine in January during this year than 2024. That trend reversed in February when there were 18,000 fewer land crossings in 2025. The difference was even larger in March when there were 28,000 fewer land crossings this year than last.

The number of land border crossings is on a downward swing at a time when numbers normally start to increase as the state heads into the busy summer travel season.