by Jen Mallia
Last updated: 2:15 PM ET, Wed October 7, 2026
Statistics Canada has just released its data tabulating 2025 revenue for travel arrangement and reservation services in Canada. The results show steady growth in the industry, confirming that travellers continue to turn to experts rather than relying on direct bookings or AI bots for their travel plans.
Revenue increased 8.8 percent to $18.3 billion in 2025. It shows a steady growth, although not as steep as the 9.3 percent rise recorded in 2024.
For StatsCan purposes, the industry is divided into three categories: travel agencies, tour operators and “other travel arrangement and reservation services”.
Tour Operators
Tour operators generated the biggest share of sales in 2025 at 60.3 percent, which was up marginally (1.2 percentage points) from 2024.
In 2025, the operating revenue of tour operators rose 10.9 percent to $11.0 billion. Their operating expenses increased at a similar pace: 10.5% to $10.7 billion. The bulk of these expenses (84.3 percent) was reported to be “the cost of goods sold.”
If you sell packaged and group tours, you already know they are a popular product. In 2025, most sales revenue for tour operators came from packaged (63.2 percent) and group (21 percent) tours. Destinations abroad (that is, not the U.S.) were far and away the most popular, accounting for 82.7 percent of all destinations.
The operating profit margin for tour operators was up slightly (from 2.5 percent in 2024 to 2.9 percent in 2025,) as operating revenue outpaced operating expenses.
Travel Agencies
Revenue was also up for travel agencies, with a reported rise of 3.8 percent, to $3.0 billion in 2025. The biggest expenses for travel agencies are salaries, wages, commissions and benefits (51 percent).
Airline seats (35 percent) and packaged tours (25.2 percent) were the categories of sales that made up the biggest share of sales revenue. As with tour operators, international destinations other than the U.S. were the biggest revenue generators, representing 60.8 percent.
The operating profit margin of travel agencies fell slightly — from 14.5% in 2024 to 14.3% in 2025.
Other Travel Arrangement and Reservation Services
The “other” category encompasses a variety of businesses. According to StatsCan, automobile clubs, ticket service companies and travel wholesalers accounted for the biggest share of its $4.2 billion in sales for 2025.
The agency predicts that on-going disruptions to travel between the U.S. and Canada may dampen industry revenues for 2026. That data will be published in 2027 after the numbers are collected and collated for this year.
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