Travel between Canada and other countries, March 2025

Released: 2025-05-22

Highlights

In March, the number of trips to Canada by US residents decreased 6.6% year over year to 1.2 million trips. The number of trips to Canada by overseas residents fell 17.4%, marking a sixth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

The number of Canadian-resident return trips from abroad (United States and overseas combined) was also down in March, declining 14.9% compared with the same month in 2024.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, non-resident arrivals (United States and overseas residents combined) in Canada increased 2.4% in March 2025, while returning Canadian-resident arrivals fell 7.1%.

Trips to Canada by US residents continue to decrease

In March, US resident trips to Canada (1.2 million) declined year over year for a second consecutive month, down 6.6% from March 2024.

Arrivals by automobile (881,900) were down 8.7% year over year in March 2025, marking a second consecutive month of year-over-year declines. Over half (56.3%) of these arrivals were same-day trips. Meanwhile, air arrivals (321,200) were up 2.2% from March 2024. Other US residents disembarked in Canada from cruise ships (1,400) in March, marking the start of the 2025 cruise ship season.

Chart 1 
Change in US visitors entering Canada, by province or territory of arrival, March, 2024 to 2025, unadjusted data

Trips to Canada by overseas residents continue to decline

In March, 286,600 overseas residents arrived in Canada, marking a 17.4% decline and the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year decreases. The majority (87.7%) of overseas-resident arrivals in March were by air.

The year-over-year decline in overseas-resident arrivals in March was primarily attributable to fewer arrivals from the Americas (excluding the United States) (-19.5%), Europe (-18.6%) and Asia (-14.4%). Europe is Canada's largest source market for overseas travellers, followed by Asia and the Americas (excluding the United States). In March, the top three countries of residence for overseas visitors were the United Kingdom (32,800), Mexico (28,500) and France (25,100), accounting for 30.1% of all overseas arrivals in Canada.

Chart 2 
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to March 2025, unadjusted data

Trips abroad by Canadian residents continue to decrease

Canadian residents returned from 4.3 million trips abroad (-14.9%) in March, marking the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

Of those trips in March, 59.8% were by air (2.6 million), edging up 1.1% year over year. The number of Canadian-resident return trips by air from the United States decreased by 7.8% from March 2024, while return trips by air from overseas increased 8.1% during the same period.

In March 2025, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile declined by 31.4% to 1.7 million; of these trips, 59.3% were same-day trips.

Chart 3 
Canadian residents returning to Canada from abroad, March 2024 to March 2025

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, see the Note to readers).

Trips to Canada by US residents increase

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the overall number of arrivals in Canada by US residents increased 2.8% in March compared with February. US-resident arrivals in Canada increased 1.1% by air and 3.4% by automobile in March, contributing to the overall monthly increase.

Chart 4 
Percent change in US visitors entering Canada, by province or territory of arrival, February to March 2025, seasonally adjusted data

Trips to Canada by overseas residents increase

In March, the number of overseas-resident arrivals in Canada increased by 0.7% on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis. Arrivals by residents of Europe—Canada's largest overseas market—decreased by 1.3% in March, while arrivals by residents of Asia increased by 2.0% and those by residents of the Americas (excluding the United States) rose by 5.8%. By volume, increases in the number of visitors from Mexico (+7.7%) and Germany (+3.9%) helped to offset decreases in the number of visitors from Japan (-9.3%) and France (-2.0%).

Chart 5 
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to March 2025, seasonally adjusted data

Canadian-resident return trips from abroad decline

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, Canadian residents returned from fewer trips abroad for a third consecutive month, down 7.1% in March. This was due to a reduction in automobile trips to the United States (-11.7%), which accounted for 46.3% of overall Canadian-resident trips abroad. Trips by air to the United States (-5.5%) were also down; they accounted for 20.4% of all Canadian-resident trips abroad.

Canadian-resident trips overseas by air, which accounted for 31.2% of all Canadian-resident trips abroad in March, declined 1.3% compared with February.

Chart 6 
International visitors (non-residents and Canadian residents) entering and returning to Canada, January 2019 to March 2025

Products

The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (Catalogue number71-607-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).