Jays fans help Seattle amid tourism slide

SEATTLE – Pike Place Market artist and vendor Daniel Fleming says Toronto Blue Jays fans typically show up in Seattle in “droves” for games against the Mariners, and the ongoing American League Championship Series has been no different.

He says the city and the market can seem insulated from political tensions between Canada and the United States that have seen the number of Canadians heading south plunge.

But Visit Seattle, the city’s tourism marketing organization, is forecasting a 26 per cent drop in international visitors this year, calling it the largest drop for a major city in the U.S. due to its “dependence” on Canada.

Fleming has been selling his work at Pike Place for two decades, and is apologetic for the rhetoric of U.S. President Donald Trump toward Canada.

However, he says this tourism season seems “fairly normal,” although he’s noticed a drop in Korean and Chinese tourists, and he believes the political fallout might manifest more starkly next year.

Fleming says Blue Jays fans travel to regular season games all the time and using jerseys as a “barometer,” plenty are in town for the American League Championship Series too.

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He says he doesn’t think Canadians need much convincing to visit a city like Seattle despite the “hype” around political conflict.

“[You] talk to people at large on the street and you will find that the people of a place are not the government of that place,” he said Thursday.

Visit Seattle says Canadians spent $586 million in the Seattle and King County area last year.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2025.