Thousands Of Americans Are Still Trying To Come To Canada For Sightseeing & Shopping

Even in a global pandemic, Americans can't seem to resist all the cool stuff you can see up north. The Canada-US border closure has stopped non-essential travel between the two countries. However, residents of the United States are still trying to cross for all kinds of recreational purposes.

Data provided to Narcity by the Canada Border Services Agency shows that between March 22 and August 5, 12,819 U.S. citizens tried to cross the border by land, rail, or marine travel for discretionary reasons.

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This marks an increase of 2,490 Americans being denied entry into Canada since July 12, with 1,190 of them citing their reason for visiting as non-essential leisure travel.

While 6,158 Americans in total did not have the reason for their trip specified, over a quarter (3,603) of these recorded visits were for the purpose of tourism or sightseeing.

Just over 1,500 travellers claimed they wanted to head into Canada for recreation, while 665 said they were coming up to go shopping.

Hundreds of other U.S. citizens were turned away after flying into the country, as well.

On top of Americans trying to get into Canada to go on day trips or spend a day finding bargains at Winners, hundreds more foreign nationals from other countries tried to enter from the United States for the same purposes, only to be turned back.

A further 349 foreign nationals arriving from other countries were denied entry into Canada during this time period.

The closure of the border between the United States and Canada has been pushed forward until September 21.

Despite blocking all non-essential travel between the two nations, there have still been Americans who managed to get through by citing the Alaska loophole, which CBSA has worked to tighten.

There has also been tension between Canadian and American tour boat companies, who both regularly enter the other country's territory.

However, boats from the United States have explicitly been told not to enter Canadian waters, while ships from up north have been crossing the marine border without issue.

There has also been tension on land, as cars with American plates spotted in Canada have been vandalized.