How Canada’s low dollar could be a good thing for Sask. tourism industry

The Canadian to U.S. dollar exchange rate is costing travellers a pretty penny to cross the border.

However, some experts say the low Canadian dollar can actually be beneficial to Saskatchewan as tourists travel from down south.

Since 2020, the Canadian dollar has sat roughly around 69 cents of the U.S. dollar according to economist Jason Childs.

Currently, it sits at roughly 70 cents. And while the number isn’t great, Childs said he has seen worse.

“It hasn’t been this low in quite a while,” he explained. “I mean it’s not at the 63 cents I remember from way back in the day, but it is quite low.”

Childs said for Canadians hoping to travel down south, it is a difficult time to make those decisions.

“All the hotel prices, all the food prices, everything in the states just increased by about 7 per cent in price in the last 6 weeks to a month. This is not good news for Canadian travellers.”

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But he said it can be beneficial for the tourism sector as whole.

“It’s actually a good thing for the Canadian tourism sector because people don’t go to the states and instead Canadians stay home and travel around Canada where the dollar is still worth mostly a dollar,” Childs explained.

“But it also makes it more appealing for Americans to come here because stuff just got seven per cent cheaper.”

This is something Jonathan Potts, the CEO of Tourism Saskatchewan, agrees with.

“It’s really an incentive for people to come,” he said.

Potts pointed to many people visiting Saskatchewan for fishing and hunting trips.

“It’s really more the experience that drives the visit,” he said. “And it might mean that those visitors will spend more money when they fly into a place like Saskatoon or Regina. Spend a little time at the hotels, restaurants and bars.

“They might spend more money then because they have greater impact with their dollar.”

The low Canadian dollar is also motivating Americans to come for more niche experiences such as birding or night sky viewing.

And with more and more direct flights coming in and out of the Regina airport, Potts hopes to see an influx of American travellers.