by Natasha Lair
Last updated: 9:55 AM ET, Wed September 24, 2025
In July 2025, more Americans travelled to Canada than Canadians travelled to the United States, the second time this has happened since June 2006, excluding pandemic months in 2021, according to Statistics Canada.
The report shows that Canadian residents' return trips to the U.S. fell 32.4% year over year, while trips to Canada by U.S. residents decreased by 3.0%.
“Canadian residents returned from 2.6 million trips to the United States, representing 71.2% of all trips abroad taken by Canadian residents during the month,” StatCan reported.
“Meanwhile, US residents took 3.3 million trips to Canada in July, representing 76.5% of all non-resident trips to Canada in July 2025.”
(Photo Credit: Adobe Stock)
Road Trips to the U.S. Take a Hit
The decline in Canadian travel to the U.S. was largely driven by automobile trips, which fell 35.8% to 1.9 million, with nearly 60% of these being same-day trips. Air travel from the U.S. also dropped 16.2% to 563,500 visits.
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Air Travel Bucks the Downward Trend
For U.S. visitors to Canada, arrivals by automobile (1.9 million) fell 6.1% from July 2024, while air arrivals (790,000) rose 4.2%. Cruise ship arrivals decreased 2.5% to 285,400. Over half of automobile arrivals were overnight trips.
Overseas Visitors Keep Climbing
Overseas travel trends were more positive.
In July, 999,600 overseas residents arrived in Canada, up 10.3% from the previous year, with air travel accounting for 81.7% of arrivals. Europe and Asia led the gains, each posting a 10.3% increase.
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom. (Photo Credit: Adobe Stock/bnoragitt)
UK, France and India Lead the Way
The top three overseas markets were the United Kingdom (134,700), France (104,100), and India (68,300).
Canadian resident return trips from overseas also increased by 8.9% to 1 million trips by air. Overall, Canadian residents made 3.6 million trips abroad in July, a 24.2% decrease compared to July 2024.
RELATED: Canadian Travel Sees Boost in Q4 2024, Led by Domestic Trips
Month-to-Month Shifts Reveal Patterns
Seasonally adjusted monthly data show a slight decline in Canadian trips abroad (-2.2%) and a modest increase in overseas arrivals to Canada (+3.1%). US-resident arrivals decreased 0.3% on a seasonally adjusted basis.
New Data Makes the Numbers Clearer
StatCan also noted that the July data incorporates information from the Canada Border Services Agency's Integrated Primary Inspection Line – Air (IPIL Air) system, improving accuracy for arrivals at major airports and overseas visitors.
The full report and interactive tourism data are available through Statistics Canada’s Frontier Counts dashboard.
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