Border boom: New Brunswick island warmly welcomes back badly missed U.S. visitors

Perhaps no other area of the Maritimes relies so heavily on American tourist traffic than New Brunswick’s Campobello Island.

Travel restrictions over the course of two summers have stopped stateside visitors from crossing the international bridge from Lubec, Maine onto the island famously favoured by an American president.

Now that several barriers at land borders have been eased, early returns on Campobello from the U.S. Memorial Day long weekend have created a sense of optimism about the season ahead.

"It’s been busy," said Anne Fletcher of Roosevelt Campobello International Park.

The site’s iconic red cottage, and former summer home of Franklin D. Roosevelt, began its season on Saturday and welcomed about 50 people on opening day.

"We’ve been really surprised at how many visitors we’ve had from the states," said Fletcher.

Pre-pandemic, about 160,000 people visited Roosevelt Cottage annually with most being from the United States.

"We definitely get more Americans because they know the Roosevelt story," said Chelsea Marcoux, an interpreter at the international park. “Over the past two years we had roughly about 5,000 Canadian visitors each year and it’s really made us realize we have to bump up our promotion in Canada.

"We’re hoping for more Canadian visitors because it’s great having them here," she added.

Peter Harwerth, a tour company owner on Campobello, already had several reservations lined up for the season ahead and was hosting groups throughout the long weekend.

"Normally we don’t start really that early in May, so this looks actually pretty good," said Harwerth, who described the 2020 and 2021 seasons as "pretty much disastrous."

Harwerth said a silver lining from the first two years of the pandemic was the increase in Maritime visitors who took the ferry to Campobello from the Canadian mainland.

"Many of those people had never been here before," said Harwerth. "So they discovered the island at that time."

Numerous U.S. license plates could be found around Campobello Island this past weekend.

"Everybody’s been real friendly, welcoming us here like they’ve known us all their life and it’s been great," said Paul Digby, visiting from Georgia.

Travellers arriving at the Canadian border are required to have information filled out through the ArriveCan app or website.

Pennsylvania visitor Paul Allen had the information completed beforehand and reported a trouble-free trip through Canadian Customs.

"We had our dog with us, and they even had a biscuit for our dog," said Allen.

Travellers who weren’t aware of the ArriveCan requirement were told to return to the U.S

"He told us 'Turn around and go to Lubec and fill it out,'" said Maine visitor Nathaniel Hicks. "So that’s what we did, and I got mine filled out. I’m here!"