Travel between Canada and other countries, April 2025

Released: 2025-06-23

Highlights

In April, the number of trips to Canada by US residents decreased 8.9% year over year, while the number of trips to Canada by overseas residents edged down 0.6%.

The number of Canadian-resident return trips from abroad (United States and overseas combined) was also down in April, declining 18.9% from April 2024.

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, US-resident arrivals decreased 8.7% in April 2025, while overseas-resident arrivals increased 0.9%.

Trips to Canada by US residents continue to decrease

In April, US-resident trips to Canada (1.3 million) declined year over year for a third consecutive month, down 8.9% from April 2024.

Arrivals by automobile (937,400) were down 8.4% year over year in April 2025. Over half (54.8%) of these arrivals were same-day trips. Meanwhile, air arrivals (325,400) were down 4.0% from April 2024. The number of US residents who disembarked in Canada from cruise ships was 24,800 in April 2025, marking a decline of 31.5% compared with the same month in 2024.

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

Trips to Canada by overseas residents continue to decline

In April 2025, 408,200 overseas residents arrived in Canada, slipping by a modest 0.6% and marking its seventh consecutive month of year-over-year decline. The majority (85.3%) of overseas-resident arrivals in April were by air.

Fewer arrivals from Asia (-12.6%) contributed the most to the year-over-year decline in arrivals from overseas in April. By contrast, there was a greater number of arrivals from Europe (+3.7%) and the Americas (excluding the United States) (+14.4%). Europe is Canada's largest source market for overseas visitors, followed by Asia and the Americas.

In April, the top three countries of residence for overseas visitors were the United Kingdom (61,500), France (39,600) and Mexico (39,500), accounting for 34.4% of all overseas arrivals in Canada.

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

Trips abroad by Canadian residents continue to decrease

Canadian residents returned from 3.6 million trips abroad in April, representing an 18.9% decrease and marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year decline. Of those trips, 59.0% were by air, down 1.3% year over year.

The number of Canadian-resident return trips by air from the United States in April decreased by 14.0% from April 2024. Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips by air from overseas countries increased 9.1% in April 2025 compared with one year earlier.

In April, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile declined by 35.4% to 1.4 million; of these trips, 60.3% were same-day trips.

Chart 3 
Canadian residents returning to Canada from abroad, April, 2024 to 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 decrease

On a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, the overall number of arrivals in Canada by US residents fell by 8.7% in April. Declines in arrivals by air (-3.5%) and by automobile (-11.2%) in April contributed to the overall monthly decrease.

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

Trips to Canada by overseas residents edge up

In April, the number of overseas-resident arrivals in Canada edged up by 0.9% on a seasonally adjusted monthly basis, led by residents of Europe (+2.9%). Meanwhile, arrivals by residents of Asia decreased by 2.2% from March. By volume, increases in the number of visitors from Italy (+36.1%), China (+3.7%) and Hong Kong (+7.6%) in April helped to offset decreases in the number of visitors from Japan (-8.8%) and Mexico (-3.3%).

Chart 5 
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to April 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 fourth consecutive month, down 6.2% in April. This drop was caused by a reduction in automobile trips to the United States (-12.3%), which accounted for 42.8% of overall Canadian-resident trips abroad. Trips by air to the United States (-1.9%) were also down; they accounted for 21.5% of all Canadian-resident trips abroad.

In April, Canadian-resident trips overseas by air, which accounted for 33.8% of all Canadian-resident trips abroad, edged up 0.2% compared with March.

Chart 6 
Non-resident visitors entering Canada and Canadian residents returning to Canada, January 2019 to April 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).