Travel between Canada and other countries, December 2024
Released: 2025-02-21
2,132,061
December 2024
6.9% 
(12-month change)
4,067,770
December 2024
6.0%
(12-month change)
2,685,193
December 2024
3.7%
(monthly change)
4,515,601
December 2024
1.3%
(monthly change)
Highlights
In December, US residents took 1.7 million trips to Canada, and residents of overseas countries took 446,600 trips. The number of non-resident arrivals (US-resident and overseas-resident arrivals combined) in Canada represented 97.3% of the number observed in December 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In December 2024, Canadian residents returned from 4.1 million trips abroad, which represented 92.9% of the level recorded in December 2019.
According to seasonally adjusted data, on a month-to-month basis, non-resident arrivals in Canada increased by 3.7% in December 2024. The number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals rose 1.3% compared with November.
To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, please visit the Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard.
Trips to Canada by US residents
In December, US residents took 1.7 million trips to Canada, up 10.6% from the same month in 2023, with increases in arrivals by automobile and by air. The number of trips to Canada by US residents in December 2024 corresponded to 99.3% of the level observed in December 2019, before the pandemic.
In December 2024, 71.9% of US residents visiting Canada arrived by automobile (1.2 million arrivals), and 48.9% of those arrivals were same-day trips. Arrivals by automobile were up 9.0% year over year and represented 99.6% of the December 2019 level. US residents also crossed Canadian land borders in December 2024 by other means, such as by bus (27,400), by train (7,900) and as pedestrians (4,800).
Air arrivals (414,800) made up 24.6% of all trips to Canada taken by US residents in December. These arrivals increased by 15.9% from the same month in 2023 and were up 0.5% from the level seen in December 2019.
In December 2024, the main points of entry for US residents entering Canada by automobile were near Vancouver (including Douglas and Pacific Highway in Surrey), near Niagara (including Niagara Falls and Fort Erie) and in Southwestern Ontario (including Windsor and Sarnia). Together, these were the points of entry for 70.9% of all such trips.
In December, the busiest points of entry by air were in Toronto (including Toronto Pearson International Airport and Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport), Vancouver, Montréal and Calgary. Combined, these points of entry represented 91.4% of all US-resident arrivals in Canada by air during the month.
Trips to Canada by overseas residents
In December, 446,600 overseas residents arrived in Canada, a decrease of 4.9% compared with the same month in 2023, representing the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines. The level seen in December 2024 reached 90.4% of that recorded in December 2019. In December 2024, 87.1% of overseas-resident arrivals in Canada were by air.
The top three countries of residence of overseas visitors—the United Kingdom (59,100), France (48,100) and Mexico (41,200)—represented 33.2% of all overseas arrivals in Canada in December.
In December, overseas residents arrived in Canada most frequently at airports in Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal and Calgary, which welcomed a combined 96.3% of all overseas-resident arrivals by air.
Trips abroad by Canadian residents
Canadian residents returned from 4.1 million trips abroad in December, up 6.0% from December 2023 and representing 92.9% of such trips taken during the same month in 2019.
Trips to the United States by automobile (2.1 million) represented 52.4% of the total trips taken abroad by Canadian residents in December 2024, and 68.3% of these trips to the United States were same-day trips. Trips by Canadian residents returning by automobile from a visit to the United States increased by 7.0% year over year and represented 87.2% of such trips taken in December 2019.
In December 2024, Canadian residents flew back to Canada from 1.9 million trips abroad, representing 46.2% of their total trips. Air arrivals in December were 4.6% higher than they were in the same month one year earlier and exceeded the number of such arrivals recorded in December 2019 by 1.7%.
The busiest points of entry for Canadian residents returning from the United States by automobile in December 2024 were in Southwestern Ontario, near Vancouver and near Niagara. Combined, these points of entry accounted for 64.8% of such trips.
The busiest airports for Canadian residents returning home from abroad in December were in Toronto, Montréal, Vancouver and Calgary. Combined, these airports represented 87.6% of all air arrivals of Canadian residents from abroad.
2024 in review
In 2024, tourism continued its recovery trend. Canada welcomed 81.8 million international arrivals in 2024 (including both non-resident visitors and returning Canadian residents), up 9.8% from 2023. This was 92.4% of the number of arrivals observed in 2019.
US resident arrivals to Canada continued to recover and reached 23.4 million in 2024, up 10.7% from 2023. This number represented 94.0% of the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level in 2019. Meanwhile, overseas-resident arrivals in Canada stood at 6.4 million in 2024. Despite the year-over-year increase (+5.8% from 2023), the recovery rate of these arrivals in 2024 has been slower and represented 85.0% of the level in 2019.
Canadian-resident trips abroad also continued their upward trend in 2024, surpassing their 2023 level by 10.0% (92.6% of the 2019 level). Canadian resident trips to the United States totalled 39.0 million. While these trips were up 4.4% from 2023, they were 89.0% of the 2019 level. In contrast, trips overseas by Canadian residents surpassed the pre-pandemic level for the first time in 2024 (13.0 million arrivals, up 5.2% from 2019), rising 30.9% from 2023.
The cruise industry sailed past records from its landmark year in 2023, with 1.9 million cruise ship passenger disembarkations in Canada in 2024 (+6.1% from 2023), surpassing the 2019 level by 25.7%. Disembarkations in Canada by US residents in 2024 totalled 1.5 million (+5.4% from 2023), while there were 239,500 disembarkations by overseas residents (+15.5%) and 187,000 by Canadian residents (+1.3%).
Seasonally adjusted arrivals
Tourism is influenced by seasonal effects (e.g., actual seasons and holidays such as Canada Day and Thanksgiving) and by calendar effects (e.g., number of weekends in a month). All statistics in this section are based on seasonally adjusted data (for more information, please see the Note to readers).
In December 2024, the number of arrivals in Canada by US residents grew by 4.3% from the previous month, driven by both automobile and air travel. The December increase marks the fourth consecutive monthly rise since September.
Overseas-resident arrivals in Canada increased 1.4% in December, led by a greater number of visitors from Europe, compared with November.
Arrivals by residents of Europe—Canada's largest overseas market, with 48.3% of the total overseas arrivals in Canada—increased 7.5% in December. By volume, the United Kingdom, France and Germany all contributed to the monthly gain.
Arrivals by residents of Asia—the second-largest overseas market, with 26.8% of the total overseas arrivals in Canada—were little changed in December from November. Declines from the Philippines and Hong Kong were offset by increases from Taiwan and Japan.
Arrivals by residents of the Americas (excluding the United States)—the third-largest overseas market, with 15.8% of the total overseas arrivals in Canada—decreased by 9.7% in December, led by a drop in visitors from Brazil and Mexico.
The number of Canadian residents returning from a trip abroad increased by 1.3% in December, compared with November. Return trips from the United States were up by 2.9%, for a second consecutive month of gains. However, Canadian-resident arrivals from overseas countries fell by 3.0% in December, marking an end to five consecutive months of increases.
Chart 1
Non-resident visitors entering Canada, December 2018 to December 2024
Chart 2
Canadian residents returning to Canada from abroad, December 2018 to December 2024
Focus on Canada and the United States
In 2024, Canadian residents took 39.0 million trips to the United States, an increase of 4.4% from 2023.
Meanwhile, US residents took 23.4 million trips to Canada in 2024 (+10.7% from 2023), over half of which were trips by automobile.
To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, please visit the Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard.
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Note to readers
What is seasonal adjustment? Tourism is influenced by seasonal and calendar effects. These effects can bring about changes in the data that normally occur at the same time, and in about the same magnitude, every year. A seasonally adjusted time series is a time series that has been adjusted to eliminate the effects of seasonal and calendar influences. Seasonally adjusted data allow for more meaningful comparisons of economic conditions from period to period. For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Seasonally adjusted data have been produced using the X12 ARIMA seasonal adjustment program.
Seasonally adjusted data for January to November 2024 have been revised. Also, because of the Canada Post service disruptions, published data for November 2024 in tables 24-10-0050-01, 24-10-0051-01, 24-10-0053-01, 24-10-0054-01 and 24-10-0055-01 were preliminary estimates. The data in these tables have now been revised with the release of the December 2024 data.
Unless otherwise specified, this release uses unadjusted (raw) data.
Readers are encouraged to review the concepts, definitions, data sources, methods and summary of changes for Frontier Counts, as well as explanatory notes for online tables, especially when making historical comparisons and examining specific regions.
For more current estimates of international arrivals to Canada, please see the release, "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada."
For more information on travel by Canadian residents, please see the quarterly release of the National Travel Survey (NTS). For more information on travel in Canada by non-residents, please see the quarterly release of the Visitor Travel Survey (VTS). The NTS and the VTS data release for the fourth quarter of 2024 is scheduled for May 30, 2025.
Next release
"Travel between Canada and other countries" for January 2025 will be released on March 21, 2025.
Products
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Contact information
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