ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½'s decision to require Mexican citizens to have visas in order to enter ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ starting this past Feb. 29 has prompted many Mexicans to stay home, or travel elsewhere, according to new visitor data.
Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller made the surprising sudden announcement on Feb. 28, throwing a wrench into the works of many Mexicans who had already booked trips to come to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. .
Before Miller's one-day notice of the change, Mexicans had only been required to have electronic travel authorizations in order to visit ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½. Miller's announcement came with a ministry statement that "most existing electronic travel authorizations for Mexican passport holders are being cancelled."
The only exemptions that allow Mexicans to come to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ without a visa are those who held a Canadian visitor visa in the last 10 years, or who currently hold a valid U.S. non-immigrant visa.
Perhaps because so many Mexicans had already booked flights for March, that month's number of Mexicans coming to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ via ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ ports of entry was still up year-over-year, , to 16,458, according to Destination British Columbia's breakdown of Statistics ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ data. That increase, however, was far below the 14.4-per-cent year-over-year increase, to 336,748, for overnight visits by residents of all nations to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ via ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ entry points in March.
The drop in visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ by Mexicans through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ started in earnest in April.
Year-over-year overnight visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ by residents of all nations in April was up 4.6 per cent, to 338,805. The number of Mexicans in that tally, however, was. That was the largest percentage drop among nationals of all countries.
May data shows that the trend is continuing.
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ tourism operators were having field days all month in May, as the number of overall overnight foreign visitors to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ entry points soared 17.1 per cent, to 515,073, compared with the same month in 2023. The number of Mexican visitors to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in May, however, . Once again, that was the largest percentage drop among nationals of all countries.
The change to require Mexicans to have visas to enter ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ reverts to what was the case nearly eight years ago
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had made good on his long-term pledge to allow Mexicans to enter ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ without needing visas starting Dec. 1, 2016. He , during Mexico's then-president Enrique Peña Nieto’s two-day state visit to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½, which also saw Mexico agree to lift restrictions on Canadian beef.
Airlines loved the news.
starting as soon as the visa restrictions were dropped.
Within a year, Interjet became the seventh airline to fly non-stop flights between YVR and Mexican destinations.
Mexican visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ entry points soared in 2017.
Abbotsford International Airport general manager Parm Sidhu told BIV in late 2017 that . His airport expected three non-stop flights per week to Mexico in the 2017-18 fall and winter versus only one weekly non-stop flight to Mexico the previous year.
It has no such flights right now.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump's January 2017 inauguration as president came a little more than a month after ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ lifted its visa requirements on Mexicans. Some speculated that Mexicans were coming to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and had soured on visiting the U.S. because of Trump's anti-immigration policies and disparaging language about Mexicans, but the reason was more likely related to the ease in which they could newly come to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½.
The number of Mexican travellers to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ in December 2016, compared with December 2015, according to Destination British Columbia. .
The number of visits obviously tanked during the COVID-19 pandemic, but Mexicans were .
The take-away lesson from the surge and decline in Mexican visits to ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ through ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ is that requiring travellers to get visas in order to visit a country is a good way to deter visits.
Fortunately for Canadians, , with access to 187 of 227 countries, according to passport analytics firm Henley & Partners. ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ ranks below 23 nations for the number of countries where nationals can visit visa-free, and is tied with Czechia, Hungary and Malta. Countries with visa-on-arrival requirements count as visa-free in Henley & Partners' research.
U.S. passport holders can only access 186 of those nations visa-free.
The differences between ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ and the U.S. on visa-free access include that Canadians can enter Uzbekistan and Belarus without visas, whereas Americans need visas for those countries. Americans, however, can enter Egypt without a visa, whereas one is required of Canadians, according to Henley & Partners.
