With Manitobans enjoying a winter long weekend, historically this may have been a prime time for families to load up the van and head south of the border for a few nights. But, members of the Grand Forks business community say the weak Canadian dollar is certainly having an impact on travel by Canadians to North Dakota.

Julie Rygg serves as Executive Director of the Greater Grand Forks Convention and Visitors Bureau. She says one way to tell is by the lower occupancy rates at hotels. Statistics show that in

2015, the combined occupancy rate for all hotels in Grand Forks was 55 per cent. That is 10 per cent lower than the previous year. But Rygg says it is difficult to know how much of that had to do with the Canadian dollar, since more hotels were added in Grand Forks last year.

"We know part of that is additional inventory, part of it obviously is the Canadian dollar," she says.

Ryan Kuntz is General Manager of C'mon Inn in Grand Forks. He says they have been noticing declining numbers of Canadian visitors since last January. He says that is largely due to the slumping loonie.

"They are just cancelling, the dollar is just too bad right now," he says. "Too expensive, they are not coming. We hear it all the time."

Kuntz says in 2013, roughly 70 per cent of their visitors were from Canada. Last year it dropped below 50 per cent.

This isn't the first time the Canadian dollar has experienced a slide. Rygg says historically what happens during times like this, is Canadians still visit but not as often. And, trips are given more thought as opposed to a spur of the moment getaway.

Both Rygg and Kuntz say hotels are offering all kinds of incentives in an effort to get more 'eh' into the land of stars and stripes. In fact, Kuntz says C'mon Inn was probably the first hotel to offer rooms at par.

"We started it last June," he says. "We basically just set a rate that's close to what an at par rate would be and that's kind of what we went with. Cut and dry, very easy."

Kuntz says they are also putting out weekend coupons. He says they never used to do this because weekends normally filled up without the need for coupons. But he says it is all an attempt to be more aggressive. And Rygg says there are a variety of discount packages for Canadians looking to head to Grand Forks in April for the IIHF U18 World Championship.

"We love our Canadian visitors, they come and they shop and eat in our restaurants, stay in our hotels and hopefully enjoy some of our events," says Rygg. "We'd love to see them keep coming and we hope to provide discounts and offers to make it worth their while as well."

If the Canadian dollar is hurting travel to the United States, is it helping travel from the U.S. to Canada? Kuntz says it is certainly something that Americans are considering.