Visitor Travel Survey, fourth quarter 2024
Released: 2025-05-30
Highlights
From October to December 2024, visitors from the United States and overseas countries made 6.1 million trips to Canada, up 8.2% from the same quarter in 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2024, four out of five non-resident trips (80.0%) were made by US residents.
Meanwhile, spending by non-resident visitors to Canada totalled $5.0 billion in the fourth quarter, up 6.2% from the same quarter in 2023, spending an average of $819 per trip.
Trips to Canada by US residents
During the fourth quarter of 2024, US residents took 4.9 million trips to Canada, up 12.0% compared with the same quarter of 2023. From October to December 2024, for most of these visitors, the main reason for taking these trips was personal (85.6%) rather than for business and professional purposes. Holidays, leisure or recreation (54.4%) was the most frequently cited personal reason for visiting Canada.
In the fourth quarter, US residents visiting Canada spent $3.0 billion, a 21.0% increase over the fourth quarter of 2023, spending an average of $610 per trip in the fourth quarter of 2024, with an average trip length of 3.2 nights. Accommodation was the top spending category for US residents visiting Canada, representing 35.6% of all expenditures, followed by food and beverages (26.6%), recreation and entertainment (13.6%) and transportation (12.6%).
Trips to Canada by overseas residents
In the fourth quarter of 2024, overseas residents (from countries other than the United States) took 1.2 million trips to Canada, down 4.5% from the same quarter in 2023. From October to December 2024, the most common main purpose for these visitors' trips was visiting friends or relatives (50.7%), followed by holidays, leisure or recreation (27.5%).
The United Kingdom (155,000 visitors) ranked first for the most visitors to Canada in the fourth quarter, followed by France (135,000). China, Brazil, and South Korea were among the countries with the largest year-over-year volume increases, while declines were seen for Mexico and India.
Spending by overseas visitors to Canada totalled $2.0 billion in the fourth quarter, down by 9.9% from the fourth quarter of 2023, spending an average of $1,654 per trip, with an average trip length of 14.7 nights. In the fourth quarter of 2024, accommodation (30.7%) and food and beverages (30.1%) were the top expenditure categories for overseas residents visiting Canada. These were followed by spending in the clothing and gifts (17.7%), and transportation (10.4%) categories.
Chart 1
Total travel expenditures by non-resident visitors, by province and territory, fourth quarter 2024
Explore tourism data
To further explore current and historical data in an interactive format, see Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard.
Recent data on international travel to Canada are available in the monthly "Travel between Canada and other countries" release.
For other tourism-related information, see the Travel and Tourism Statistics portal.
Did you know we have a mobile app?
Download our mobile app and get timely access to data at your fingertips! The StatsCAN app is available for free on the App Store and on Google Play.
Note to readers
The Visitor Travel Survey (VTS) collects information on US and overseas visitors to Canada.
All data in this release are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise noted.
Readers are encouraged to review the concepts, definitions, data sources, methods, limitations, and summary of changes for the VTS, especially when making historical comparisons and examining specific regions.
New table views
24-10-0064-02 - Expenditures per trip for visitors to Canada, by residency, trip purpose and mode of transport
24-10-0064-03 - Number of nights per trip for visitors to Canada, by residency, trip purpose and mode of transport
24-10-0064-04 - Expenditures per night for visitors to Canada, by residency, trip purpose and mode of transport
24-10-0065-02 - Trips and spending per trip for visitors from United States of America to Canada, by mode of transport, percent change
24-10-0065-03 - Spending by visitors to Canada, by spending category and mode of transport.
These tables views were created based on the existing data tables (24-10-0064 and 24-10-0065).
Methodology
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, collection activity relating to the VTS was suspended in March 2020. VTS collection activities partially resumed in 2023. For the air commercial component, the Air Exit Survey (AES) resumed at five major airports. For the non-air commercial portion, estimates were calculated using a combination of AES data collected and historical non-air commercial data, as well as Frontier Counts.
Starting with the release for the second quarter of 2024, an improved method was used to model trips and spending at the provincial or territorial level for same-day trips by US residents who entered Canada by a mode other than commercial air. As a result, it was possible to better account for the place they visited in Canada. The final estimates in question were revised back to the first quarter of 2023. Estimates of the trips made by residents of countries other than the United States or trips where the mode of entry to Canada was commercial air were not affected.
Starting with the release for the first quarter of 2024, country codes have been aligned with the Variant of the Standard Classification of Countries and Areas of Interest 2022 for Travel Statistics.
It is recommended that users interpret estimates for these quarters with the aforementioned considerations in mind. Comparisons of current VTS estimates with pre-pandemic or pandemic estimates should be made with caution, because different methods were used.
Next release
The VTS for the first quarter of 2025 will be released on August 25.
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).
- Date modified: