Travel between Canada and other countries, January 2025
Released: 2025-03-21
1,377,228
January 2025
15.8% 
(12-month change)
4,017,692
January 2025
-0.5% 
(12-month change)
2,744,705
January 2025
1.5%
(monthly change)
4,320,165
January 2025
-5.6%
(monthly change)
Highlights
In January, trips to Canada by US residents increased 20.8% to reach 1.1 million trips. In contrast, trips to Canada by overseas residents experienced a fourth consecutive month of year-over-year declines that began in October 2024.
Canadian resident trips abroad (United States and overseas combined) saw a slight decline of 0.5% in January 2025 compared with the same month in 2024.
Using seasonally adjusted data, on a month-to-month basis, non-resident arrivals (US and overseas residents combined) in Canada increased by 1.5% in January 2025. Meanwhile, the number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals fell by 5.6% from the previous month, breaking a two-month streak of consecutive monthly increases.
Trips to Canada by US residents continue to grow
In January, US residents took 1.1 million trips to Canada, up 20.8% from the same month in 2024. Most of these trips were made by automobile (74.5%) or air (22.6%).
Arrivals by automobile (819,400) rose sharply by 24.4% year over year in January 2025, marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year growth. Over half (57.7%) of these arrivals were same-day trips. Air arrivals (248,600) increased by 11.2% from the same month in 2024.
Chart 1
Change in US visitors entering Canada, by province or territory of arrival, January 2024 to January 2025, unadjusted data
Trips to Canada by overseas residents decline
In January 2025, 277,000 overseas residents arrived in Canada, a decrease of 0.6% compared with the same month in 2024, marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year declines. The majority (86.3%) of overseas-resident arrivals in January 2025 were by air.
The year-over-year decline in overseas resident arrivals in January was primarily because of fewer arrivals from the Americas (excluding the United States), Canada's third-largest overseas market. In January, the top three countries of residence of overseas visitors—Mexico (27,400), China (27,100) and the United Kingdom (25,500)—accounted for 28.9% of all overseas arrivals in Canada.
Chart 2
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to January 2025, unadjusted data
Trips abroad by Canadian residents edge down
Canadian residents returned from 4.0 million trips abroad in January, edging down 0.5% from January 2024.
Canadian residents returned home by air from 2.2 million trips abroad, representing 54.5% of their total trips, in January 2025. Air arrivals in January declined by 1.4% compared with the same month in 2024.
In January 2025, trips to the United States by automobile (1.8 million) represented 44.5% of the total trips taken abroad by Canadian residents. The number of Canadian residents returning by automobile from a visit to the United States (+0.6%) edged up year over year, and 68.5% of these trips were same day.
Seasonally adjusted arrivals
Overnight trips to Canada by US residents increase
In January, the overall number of arrivals in Canada by US residents grew by 1.7%, compared with December 2024, and there was a slight increase in overnight trips (+2.3%). January 2025 marked the sixth consecutive monthly rise in overnight trips to Canada by US residents.
In January, the number of US residents arriving in Canada by air decreased by 1.0% from the previous month. This decline was partly offset by a slight increase in US residents arriving by automobile (+3.2%).
Chart 3
Percent change in US visitors entering Canada, by province or territory of arrival, December 2024 to January 2025, seasonally adjusted data
Trips to Canada by overseas residents increase
In January, the number of overseas-resident arrivals in Canada rose by 0.9% compared with the previous month. Asia (+5.3%), the Americas (excluding the United States) (+1.3%), Oceania (+3.6%) and Africa (+4.3%) saw an increase in arrivals from December 2024.
The overall monthly gain in January 2025 was driven by higher numbers of visitors from China (+15.4%), South Korea (+16.3%) and Mexico (+6.6%), which helped offset large declines in arrivals from the United Kingdom (-4.5%) and France (-2.9%).
Chart 4
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to January 2025, seasonally adjusted data
Canadian resident trips abroad decline
In January, Canadian residents returned from fewer trips abroad, down 5.6% compared with the previous month. This decline was driven by reductions in US air (-6.2%) and automobile (-6.4%) trips, as well as a drop in overseas air travel (-3.1%).
Chart 5
Non-resident visitors entering Canada, January 2019 to January 2025
Chart 6
Canadian residents returning to Canada from abroad, January 2019 to January 2025
Focus on Canada and the United States
In January 2025, Canadian residents returned from 2.7 million trips to the United States, a decrease of 2.3% from January 2024. Return trips from the United States represented 66.5% of all trips taken by Canadian residents in January 2025.
Meanwhile, US residents took 1.1 million trips to Canada in January 2025, up by 20.8% from January 2024. Trips to Canada by US residents represented 79.9% of all non-resident travel to Canada in January 2025.
For more data and insights on areas touched by the socio-economic relationship between Canada and the United States, see the Focus on Canada and the United States webpage.
Explore tourism data
To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, see Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard.
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Note to readers
Unless otherwise specified, this release uses unadjusted (raw) data.
For more information on concepts, definitions, data sources and methods, refer to Frontier Counts. For more current estimates, see "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada."
Seasonal adjustment
Tourism is influenced by seasonal effects (e.g., holidays such as Canada Day and Thanksgiving) and calendar effects (e.g., number of weekends in a month). Seasonally adjusted data are data that have been modified to eliminate the effect of seasonal and calendar influences to allow for more meaningful comparisons of economic conditions from period to period. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.
Revisions
Data for January 2025 are preliminary and subject to revisions, as Statistics Canada is undertaking work to integrate new data sources to the Frontier Counts program.
Seasonally adjusted data for January 2022 to December 2024 have been revised. No revisions were made to data that were not seasonally adjusted.
Next release
"Travel between Canada and other countries" for February will be released on April 23.
Products
The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods, or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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