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

While it is becoming even more expensive to travel from Canada to the United States, the exchange rate could be a good thing for American tourists heading north.

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.”

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