STATSCAN UPDATE: U.S. travel falls further, overseas on the rise

Canadian travel to the U.S. continued to slide in March, according to Statistics Canada; however, the decline was offset by more Canadians going overseas compared to the year before. 

Canadian-resident return trips from the United States totalled 2.0 million, a 7.6% decline that was driven by decreases in return trips by automobile (-4.5%) and by air (-13.8%).

(When comparing March 2026 with March 2024, the number of automobile trips from the United States dropped 34.9%).

Overseas

In contrast, Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries by air totalled 1.5 million in March, up 4.9% from the same month one year earlier.

However, combined Canadian-resident return trips from abroad (from the United States and overseas countries) stood at 3.6 million in March, down 2.5% from the same month one year earlier.

For the third consecutive month, a greater number of Canadian residents returned from overseas by air in March (1.5 million) than from the United States by auto (1.4 million in March).

U.S. travel to Canada

At the same time, US-resident trips to Canada increased 4.0% in March, reaching 1.1 million, the second consecutive increase after 12 consecutive months of year-over-year declines.

In March, US residents made 803,500 trips to Canada by automobile (+4.3%) and 296,000 trips by air (+3.1%).

The highest numbers of daily arrivals for March were observed on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28 (119,300 over both days). The lowest was seen on Tuesday, March 3 (20,300). 

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