New BrunswickBusinesses in places like Saint Andrews and Shediac are seeing plenty of Americans and Canadians choosing to explore closer to home rather than cross the border this summer.Numbers are up with many Canadians travelling close to home instead of going to the U.S.Mark Leger · CBC News · Posted: Sep 01, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 31 minutes agoWindsor House owner Jay Remer says Saint Andrews is experiencing its busiest tourism season since before the pandemic. (Roger Cosman/CBC)In his 25 years in the tourism industry in Saint Andrews, N.B., Jay Remer says parking has been an issue that preoccupied the town.But you won’t hear the owner of Windsor House complain about it amid a busy tourism season there.”We still have a parking problem and that’s a good thing because it means that we have lots of people coming to town for the day and many of them are spending the night,” said Remer.Remer is thrilled with the season so far. He’s one of many tourism operators who say it’s the busiest year since before the pandemic.”We have been busier than we ever have been,” he said. “All around Saint Andrews people would say the same thing. Their numbers are up, the visitations are up. You can just tell by walking down the street on a Saturday. Almost any Saturday here in town now is just as busy as Canada Day.”Sébastien Després, an entrepreneur in Shediac who owns several businesses, expects the tourism season to remain strong into the fall. (Radio-Canada)Sébastien Déspres, an entrepreneur in Shediac who owns businesses that include Le Moque Tortue and the Neptune Drive-In, says it’s certainly their best year since 2019, and says that all of Shediac has been bustling, too.”We’ve been fully booked at the bed and breakfast all summer, but that’s not atypical,” he said.”We see lineups at the restaurants. We see that our reservation system gets fully booked every single night for the Bistro, and there’s lineups at most restaurants. When we go to the beach, there’s tons of people there and there’s often lineups at the canteens.”He said it’s not overcrowded, but “it feels like we’re really flexing our muscles to the max. The town has never been as vibrant and I’m hearing that about other towns as well.”Sébastien Roy, the co-owner of Distillerie Fils Du Roy on the Acadian Peninsula, said he saw a 22 per cent increase in visitors. (Nicolas Steinbach/Radio-Canada)Sébastien Roy, the co-owner of Distillerie Fils Du Roy on the Acadian Peninsula, said he saw a 22 per cent increase in visitors, due largely to Montrealers who visited rather than travel to the U.S. “This year they decided to stay in Canada,” he said. “I was giving a high-five to each of them each time they shared that story.”Remer said many Canadians chose to travel in Canada and avoid potential hassles, something he understands as an American.”There are a lot of people who just simply don’t want to cross the border,” he said. ” I’m American and I don’t want to cross the border myself — not because I’m going to get stopped, but I could be.”Remer says people are having a sense of adventure about seeing new places in their own country.”There’s a sentiment that people just generally would rather explore some of the places in Canada that they’ve never been to before,” he said. “I hear that all the time. I hear people from Nova Scotia and northern New Brunswick who say, ‘we’ve always known about Saint Andrews, but we’ve never managed to get there.'”Remer said they are also seeing many Americans in Saint Andrews and they’re being welcomed there.”We’ve had lots of American visitors and, frankly, I think the tension is only between people and the head of state. I don’t think that Americans are being painted with the same ‘orange’ brush, let’s just put it that way,” he joked.Després says Americans are also coming to Shediac in similar numbers to past years, but they’re seeing more people from the Eastern Seaboard and few from the Pacific coast.”I’m guessing it’s the flights,” he said. “Americans are driving here in bigger numbers.”Expect busy fall season tooDesprés said they’ve remained very busy into late August so they’re optimistic about a strong fall season, partly fuelled by their “politically attuned” clientele who would ordinarily take fall trips to the U.S.”We’re hoping for big numbers, we’re hoping that the bed and breakfast will stay fully booked until hopefully mid-October, and we’re hoping that the bistro will be sold out every night until at least late September.”Remer is similarly optimistic, a feeling he didn’t necessarily have a few months ago.”I was slightly skeptical at the beginning of the season about how people were going to feel about travelling with the economy so much in limbo,” he said. “That seems to be settled down.”ABOUT THE AUTHORMark Leger is a reporter and producer based in Saint John. Send him story ideas to: mark.leger@cbc.caWith files from Shift New Brunswick
New Brunswick tourism operators thrilled with busy season
