Canadians have long flocked to the South Carolina beach town. This year, many are offended by the president and threatening to stay away.
WHY WE’RE HERE
We’re exploring how America defines itself one place at a time. At one popular South Carolina beach town, locals are hoping that Southern charm can offset hard feelings among Canadian tourists.
The Southerners at the Myrtle Beach Welcome Center had brewed Tim Hortons coffee for their northern guests. They were giving away cookies adorned with maple leaves, and lapel pins featuring the twinned flags of Canada and South Carolina.
It was Monday morning at the kickoff party for Can-Am Days, the annual ritual that honors the Canadians who have long bolstered the city’s tourist economy in the winter months. For more than 60 years, it had been the most easygoing of international summits: The local Lions Club would welcome Lions from Canada. There were garden tours and golf tournaments. In pre-internet days, the local paper would print the Canadian news.
Now it had gotten complicated and weird, a result of the trade war being waged against Canada by a capricious American president whose image is all over the Myrtle Beach T-shirt shops, his famous fist pump as popular as sea gulls and sunsets.
Along with brandishing ever-changing tariff policies — threatening, imposing, rescinding them — President Trump has repeatedly asserted that he wants to make Canada the 51st state, leaving many Canadians astonished and furious. Some have canceled plans to visit conservative Myrtle Beach, part of a broader grass-roots travel boycott that is threatening to put a dent in the $20.5 billion that Canadian visitors spend in the United States each year.
Amy Gleiser, who works at an academic teaching hospital in Ontario, is among those who have taken a stand. Reached by telephone on Wednesday, Ms. Gleiser, 47, said that she and her family had canceled their trip to Myrtle Beach, losing the deposit on their condo, and were heading instead to the Yucatan Peninsula. All because of Mr. Trump.
“It’s bullying,” she said of his treatment of Canada. “That’s how we feel.”
No one in Myrtle Beach is quite sure what the bad blood means for their community, which offers a less stuffy alternative to Hilton Head Island, down the coast. With its beachwear superstores, go-kart tracks and mini golf, Myrtle is the kind of laid-back beach town where the Hooters restaurant chain’s tongue-in-cheek motto — “Delightfully Tacky, Yet Unrefined” — could very well appear on the city seal. And it takes a certain pride in offering affordable vacations to the working and middle classes of the American South.
Canadians, too, have been charmed by Myrtle Beach’s sunshine and comparatively low prices — as well as by the crucial fact that it is much closer than Florida when traveling by minivan.
Tracy Conner, interim president of the area chamber of commerce, said it was too early to tell whether a significant number of Canadians stayed home for this year’s Can-Am Days, which run from March 8 to March 16. Tourism officials noted that there were still plenty of license plates from Ontario and Quebec in restaurant parking lots.
On Monday morning, a few dozen Canadians, most of them retirees, had stopped by the visitors center for the kickoff party. Mayor Brenda Bethune, in a short speech, tried to put some distance between Myrtle Beach and the White House — a challenge given Mr. Trump’s lopsided November victory in Horry County, which includes the city.
“I know there is a lot of tension right now, and we can’t help that, on those levels,” said Ms. Bethune, who, as it turns out, supported Nikki Haley in last year’s Republican primary. “We have to accept what we are given. And we are going to do that graciously, with a smile on our faces, with Southern hospitality, and say, ‘Welcome.’”
A local musician, of the mellow sort found on the patios of beach-adjacent seafood restaurants, played a cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” following it up with a James Taylor paean to friendship. (The Burlington Teen Tour Band of Ontario, which had been scheduled to march from the welcome center to the beach, had canceled in protest).
The snowbirds mingled. And, through the veil of politeness for which they are renowned, they vented.
Patricia Cape, 80, a retired pharmacy worker from Hamilton, Ontario, said her children had been trying to persuade her and her husband, Gary, to cut their vacation short for patriotic reasons. She was giving it some thought. “I am very disappointed by President Trump,” she said. “Why would he want to alienate Canada? I love the United States.”
Arthur and Kathy Jadischke, of Mississauga, Ontario, had already changed their plans and were heading home early. Mr. Jadischke, 82, said he did not know if he would return to Myrtle Beach. He compared Mr. Trump with Hitler and Vladimir Putin. “If this stuff keeps happening, I can’t see myself coming,” he said. “Because I’d be ashamed.”
Wayne Gray, a Myrtle Beach native and former city councilman, said that Can-Am Days were more crucial for the local economy a few decades ago, when the influx of Canadians between January and April gave a boost to local businesses before the big crush of American visitors between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
These days, Mr. Gray said, Canadians’ contributions to the economy have diminished in importance as the population of Horry County has exploded, and as the area became a destination not just for vacations but for events like youth travel sports tournaments.
“I think we’re all very appreciative of the Canadian visitors who come here,” Mr. Gray said. “But the Canadian American Days are just not as impactful as they once were.”
The visitors bureau estimates that international travelers, the bulk of whom were Canadian, contributed about 2 percent of the $1.9 billion spent by tourists in 2023, the last year such data was available.
Some business owners said they have not felt a drop in business this year, at least so far. Others say they have noticed missing Canadians. Judith Davies, chairwoman of the Horry County Democratic Party, said that a number of local rental property owners had called her, worried about Canadians canceling their vacation rentals.
Many Canadians are repeat visitors who come to Myrtle Beach for weeks or months at a time. This week, some were further offended by the Trump administration’s decision to enforce a law requiring Canadians who stay in the United States for 30 days or more to register with the authorities.
But the affronts all seemed to be coming from the top. Canadians reported no hostility from pro-Trump locals. It was the same relaxed hospitality they had experienced for years.
Even so, Rick McCall, 74, a retired car dealer from Simcoe, Ontario, said that he no longer felt comfortable in the United States. Mr. McCall describes himself as a conservative but said he considers Mr. Trump “unstable” and a “madman.”
For the past five years, Mr. McCall said, he has owned a vacation house in North Myrtle Beach. Mr. Trump’s war of words, he added, had him seriously considering selling it.
“I’ve got to tell you, it’s just not a welcoming thing. I think it’s really changed the dynamics,” he said. “I think it’s tragic. I really do.”
On Tuesday, behind the counter of a kite store that had been partially transformed into a Trump-themed emporium, David Sandifer was listening to classic rock and offering merchandise like a “White Privilege Card,” vaguely modeled on an American Express card. There was also a fake dollar bill featuring what was advertised as “Hillbilly Veep” JD Vance clutching an assault rifle.
Mr. Sandifer, 75, a former electrical contractor, said that he could see the nation losing a significant number of Canadians avoiding the United States if Mr. Trump kept the pressure on. But he did not seem to mind. God, he said, was working through Mr. Trump.
The Canadians, he suggested, should heed the collective advice of many a beach-themed T-shirt, and chill out.
“You can’t let things like that get in the way of your life,” he said. “You still have to have a good time.”