by Jen Mallia
Last updated: 4:50 PM ET, Mon September 14, 2026
Despite an escalating trade war and renewed cross-border tension, Canadian visits to the US inched up when compared with last year. This is in contrast to visits to other parts of the world, which saw fewer visits from Canadians in August 2025.
Statistics Canada reports that in the last month, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States totalled 2.6 million. That’s up 8.8 percent from August 2025. It’s the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year growth. StatsCan notes that while return trips from the United States by automobile in August 2026 rose 9.9 percent from August 2025, they were still a steep 27.4 percent lower than in August 2024.
Return trips from the United States by air in August 2026 showed a similar pattern, with an increase of 3.6 percent over last August, which is still 22.7 percent below the August 2024 levels.
Part of the boost in vehicle traffic may be due to the newly opened Gordie Howe International Bridge. The new bridge, itself the subject of Trump-rhetoric and cross-border squabbling, marked its first full month of operation in August. In that month, 134,900 Canadian-resident return trips from the United States were recorded, more than half of which (56.7 percent) were same-day trips. Conversely, the new bridge was also used as a port of entry for 101,000 US-resident trips to Canada (52.2 percent were same-day). In comparison, 348,000 Canadian and US residents entered Canada via Windsor's Ambassador Bridge and the Windsor-Detroit Tunnel, which represents a decrease of 35.4 percent from August 2025.
Meanwhile, in continuation of a trend we have seen all summer, Canadians returning from abroad (that is, countries other than the US) fell slightly. In August 2026, 1.2 million Canadians returned home, which is a decrease of 2.8 percent from August 2025. This marked the third consecutive month of year-over-year decrease.
Visitors from around the world continued to visit Canada, with an increase of 2.4 percent in US visitors over August 2025 and an increase of 7.2 percent in visitors from the rest of the world.
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