A new name has been added to the increasingly complicated relationship between the United States and Canada — and this time the dispute sits directly on one of North America’s most established cross-border tourism corridors. US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on 27 August renaming Lake Ontario as “Lake America” for US federal purposes, escalating tensions with Canada amid a wider trade dispute. Canada continues to recognise the centuries-old name Lake Ontario, leaving the two countries referring differently to a body of water they share. The US decision applies to federal usage and does not alter Canada’s designation.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney rejected the change, arguing that the Lake Ontario name predates both Canadian Confederation and the US Declaration of Independence. Canadians would continue to use the historic name, he said. The split has already moved beyond government documents. Google Maps now shows “Lake America” to users in the United States following the change to the US Geographic Names Information System. Users in Canada continue to see Lake Ontario, while people elsewhere may encounter both names. The mapping change has also exposed the complications of a geographically shared asset: some Ontario government webpages using Google Maps data briefly displayed the new US designation.
For tourism businesses around the Great Lakes, the timing is uncomfortable. Destinations on both sides of the border have spent years promoting the region as a connected visitor economy, while political tensions between Washington and Ottawa have made cross-border travel a more sensitive proposition.
A tourism corridor built around an open border
Lake Ontario has rarely been marketed as an isolated attraction. It forms part of a wider visitor economy connecting Toronto, Niagara, the Thousand Islands, northern New York and the St. Lawrence River. Cruise operators, tour companies and destination marketing organisations increasingly package those places as components of a broader Great Lakes journey. A traveller might start in Toronto, visit Niagara, cross into New York and continue through the Thousand Islands without thinking much about where one tourism region ends and another begins.
That commercial logic now sits uneasily alongside the politics. For destinations along the border, Canadian visitors are particularly valuable. Many arrive by road and support hotels, restaurants, retail businesses, attractions and events in communities where international tourism can otherwise be relatively limited. Any deterioration in traveller sentiment therefore carries consequences beyond headline arrival numbers, particularly for smaller tourism businesses.
Against that backdrop, the Lake America decision risks becoming another irritant for an industry that would prefer the destination to remain outside the political argument. Travel companies operate across multiple markets and digital platforms. Cruise itineraries, tour descriptions, booking systems, brochures and maps have long used Lake Ontario. If mapping platforms and US federal agencies adopt Lake America while Canadian organisations and international operators retain Lake Ontario, travellers could encounter different terminology during the same journey.
Few international operators are likely to see an immediate commercial advantage in changing an established product name simply to follow a US federal designation. Lake Ontario carries decades of destination recognition, while search behaviour, existing contracts, marketing material and itinerary descriptions have been built around that name.
Great Lakes tourism has been expanding
The naming dispute cuts across a longer-term tourism trend. Rather than dividing the Great Lakes into separate national products, destinations have spent years trying to connect them. Cruising has become one of the clearest examples.
Great Lakes cruises were projected to welcome more than 22,000 individual passengers in 2025, nearly 10% higher than in 2024, according to Cruise the Great Lakes. More than 700 port visits were planned, almost 30% above the previous year, while total passenger visits were expected to exceed 150,000.
The organisation estimated the economic impact of Great Lakes cruising would surpass US$230 million in 2025, a 15% increase from 2024. Higher passenger volumes, more port calls and greater shoreside spending were among the drivers.
Those figures remain modest beside the Caribbean, Mediterranean or Alaska cruise markets, but the trajectory matters. Great Lakes cruising has created opportunities for destinations that cannot compete on volume but can sell maritime heritage, nature and smaller-port experiences.
Lake Ontario has also strengthened its tourism proposition through heritage investment. The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration designated the Lake Ontario National Marine Sanctuary in 2024, covering 1,722 square miles of eastern Lake Ontario waters and bottomlands adjoining four New York counties.
The sanctuary is intended not only to protect maritime history but also to support recreation and heritage-related tourism in coastal communities. Its underwater assets include historic shipwrecks and archaeological sites spanning more than two centuries. NOAA currently identifies nearly 70 known historic shipwrecks within the sanctuary, several of them accessible for recreational diving and snorkelling. NOAA’s Lake Ontario shipwreck information positions these sites as both protected heritage assets and visitor experiences, adding another layer to the lake’s tourism economy.
Across the border, the product is markedly different. Toronto uses Lake Ontario as part of its urban visitor proposition, from harbour cruises and the Toronto Islands to beaches, paddling, restaurants and waterfront events. Destination Toronto’s 2026 waterfront guide describes a five-kilometre stretch between Cherry Street and Bathurst Street as a year-round visitor district, illustrating how closely the lake is tied to the city’s tourism identity.
Ontario’s wider visitor economy gives the debate greater commercial weight. The province recorded C$33.6 billion in visitor spending in 2024, according to Ontario government tourism statistics. Tourism generated C$30.9 billion in total GDP impact and supported an estimated 312,000 jobs when direct, indirect and induced effects were included.
The bigger risk is traveller sentiment
Canadian tourism authorities have no reason to abandon Lake Ontario, while international travel companies must consider customer recognition, search behaviour and consistency across markets. Some US organisations may eventually adopt Lake America in official material, but using two names for the same destination could prove more cumbersome than commercially useful. The more consequential issue is what the dispute says about the wider cross-border relationship.
Tourism between Canada and the United States has historically benefited from familiarity. The border separates two countries, but for millions of travellers — particularly those living in Ontario and New York — crossing it has long been a routine leisure decision rather than a major international journey.
Political friction threatens that familiarity. For destinations on the US side of the lake, the challenge is therefore bigger than deciding what to print on a brochure. Tourism organisations need to protect Canadian demand while maintaining the cross-border partnerships on which Great Lakes cruising, touring and regional tourism growth increasingly depend.
There is also a longer-term destination branding question. NOAA itself describes Lake Ontario as the easternmost Great Lake and the historic bridge between the upper Great Lakes and the Atlantic via the St. Lawrence River. NOAA’s maritime heritage overview underlines a geographic reality that tourism operators know well: the lake has always functioned as a connector.
Its name may now depend on which side of the border — or which digital map — a traveller is looking at. For tourism businesses, the question that matters is simpler: whether travellers will keep crossing that border at all.
