by Jen Mallia
Last updated: 12:35 PM ET, Fri May 22, 2026
Statistics Canada has released its report on travel between our nation and other countries in March 2026. As is the established trend, visitation to the U.S. by Canadians was down, while overseas travel was up. Of note is the fact that visits to Canada from abroad (including the U.S.) were up, indicating Canada remains a popular destination for international visitors, in contrast to our neighbours to the south who continue to struggle with softened tourism numbers.
Travel to and from the US
For the 15th consecutive month, return trips by Canadian residents from the U.S. fell. When comparing year-over-year data, StatsCan is using numbers from 2025 when the travel boycott was already being embraced by a number of Canadians, so that the number of visits are even lower than they were in March 2025 is likely giving some in the travel industry pause.
When compared with March 2025, return trips by air decreased by 10.8% and by 3.3% for automobile trips. Overall, that makes a 6.4% dip from March last year.
On the other hand, Americans seem to recognize they are still welcome to come and spend time and greenbacks here. In March, US-resident trips to Canada rose 4.4% from the same month in 2025 — the third year-over-year increase following a downward trend that began in February 2025.
Travel to and from the rest of the world
While travel to the U.S. was not an overwhelmingly popular choice for Canadians, we did still travel in March. Return trips from other international destinations were up by 3.5% from the same month last year.
Visitors from other countries also chose Canada more than they did during the same time period last year, registering an increase of 5.6%. The three countries that represented the largest amount of visitors are the United Kingdom, Mexico and India, which combined account for 31.1% of all overseas arrivals in Canada.
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