National Travel Survey and Visitor Travel Survey, first quarter 2025
Released: 2025-08-25
67.6 million
First quarter 2025
2.2% 
(year-over-year change)
$13.8 billion
First quarter 2025
4.4%
(year-over-year change)
10.2 million
First quarter 2025
-4.0% 
(year-over-year change)
$14.2 billion
First quarter 2025
2.7%
(year-over-year change)
4.3 million
First quarter 2025
-1.8%
(year-over-year change)
$4.1 billion
First quarter 2025
6.6%
(year-over-year change)
Highlights
During the first quarter, Canadian residents took 77.4 million trips within Canada and abroad, up 1.3% from the same quarter in 2024. From January to March 2025, visitors from the United States and overseas countries made 4.3 million trips to Canada, a 1.8% year-over-year decrease.
Domestic tourism: Canadian-resident visits within Canada increase
In the first quarter, Canadian residents took 67.6 million trips that included a domestic visit, up 2.2% on a year-over-year basis. Among these visits, 47.0 million were same day (+4.4%), while 20.6 million were overnight (-2.5%).
From January to March, Canadian residents spent $13.8 billion on domestic tourism, up 4.4% year over year. For same-day visits, Canadian residents spent an average of $108 per visit. For overnight visits, on average, Canadian residents spent $425 per visit and the visit length was 2.7 nights.
Chart 1
Domestic visits by Canadian residents, by main trip purpose and visit duration, first quarter 2025
Chart 2
Proportion of visits and expenditures by Canadian residents within Canada, by province or territory of visit, first quarter 2025
Outbound tourism: Canadian-resident visits to the United States down, while visits to overseas countries increase
In the first quarter, Canadian residents took 6.1 million trips that included an outbound visit to the United States, down 10.8% year over year. Among these visits, 38.2% were same day. Expenditures during visits to the United States totalled $5.7 billion, a decline of 7.9% from the first quarter of 2024. In the United States, Canadian residents spent an average of $171 per same-day visit in the first quarter of 2025. For overnight stays, on average, Canadian residents spent $1,422 per visit and the visit length was 7.2 nights.
From January to March, Canadian residents took 4.2 million trips that included an outbound visit to an overseas country (+7.1% year over year) and spent $8.5 billion overseas (+11.3%). On average, Canadian residents spent $2,012 per visit overseas and the visit length was 13.1 nights.
Mexico (1.2 million visits) was the most visited overseas country by Canadian residents in the first quarter, followed by the Dominican Republic (467,000) and China (221,000). Compared with the first quarter of 2024, Mexico (+182,000 visits; +17.1%), China (+100,000; +82.6%) and India (+79,000; +282.1%) were among the countries with the largest volume increases in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, declines were seen for Cuba (-175,000; -44.4%), Germany (-50,000; -66.7%) and the Philippines (-45,000; -48.9%).
Chart 3
Top 10 overseas countries visited by Canadian residents, by age group, first quarter 2025
Inbound tourism: Trips to Canada up for US visitors, while overseas visitors decrease
During the first quarter, US residents took 3.4 million trips to Canada, up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. Among these trips, 42.3% were same day. While visiting Canada, US residents spent $2.5 billion (+27.3%). For same-day trips, US residents spent $162 per trip on average. For overnight stays, on average, US residents spent $1,158 per trip to Canada and the trip length was 5.3 nights.
From January to March, overseas residents took 839,000 trips to Canada (-12.4%). Spending by overseas visitors to Canada totalled $1.6 billion (-14.8%). On average, overseas visitors spent $1,947 per trip and the trip length was 15.7 nights.
The United Kingdom (92,000 trips) ranked first for the most visitors to Canada in the first quarter, followed by France (86,000) and Mexico (82,000). Compared with the first quarter of 2024, Japan (+3,000 trips; +12.5%) and China (+3,000; +5.5%) were among the countries with the largest volume increases in the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, the largest declines were seen for Mexico (-38,000; -31.7%) and India (-14,000; -21.2%).
Chart 4
Trips by US and overseas residents to Canada, by main trip purpose, first quarter 2025
Chart 5
Expenditures by US and overseas residents in Canada, by expenditure category, first quarter 2025
2024 review: Inbound tourism
In 2024, visitors from the United States and overseas countries made 29.8 million trips to Canada (+9.6% compared with 2023), with 23.5 million trips being made by US residents (+10.7%) and 6.4 million being made by overseas visitors (+5.8%).
Non-resident visitors to Canada spent $28.5 billion in 2024. This spending surpassed the 2023 level by 11.7%. During this period, accommodation (35.8%) was the highest spending category, followed by food and beverages (26.6%).
For the 2024 review of domestic and outbound tourism, please consult the release, National Travel Survey, fourth quarter 2024.
Enhancements to the National Travel Survey (domestic and outbound tourism)
Two new tables are available for the National Travel Survey (NTS):
• 24-10-0070-01: Visits, nights and expenditures for Canadian residents travelling in Canada and abroad by geography of visit, main trip purpose and visit duration.
• 24-10-0071-01: Visits, nights and expenditures for Canadian residents travelling in Canada and abroad by geography of visit, province of trip origin and visit duration.
Estimates for visits and nights for all travellers (including individuals younger than 18 years old) are included in the new Common Output Data Repository (CODR) tables. For comparability with previously released datasets, estimates for travellers aged 18 years and older only can be selected from the new CODR tables 24-10-0070-01 and 24-10-0071-01.
There are a few important conceptual differences in the new tables compared with estimates previously released in other NTS products:
• Nights and spending aboard cruise ships are excluded. This is done to ensure that all estimates in the table reflect only nights and spending that occurred within the boundaries of the geography of visit.
• Visit counts at higher geographical levels are tabulated according to the principle that only the first visit to a region on a trip is counted, rather than the sum of visits to lower levels of geography. For example, the new tables tabulate country-visits to Canada, whereas other NTS products previously tabulated visits to Canada as the sum of the province-visits.
Additional tables or table views will be added with future releases.
Enhancements to the Visitor Travel Survey (inbound tourism)
Estimates are now available for selected tourism regions in table 24-10-0066-01.
A new public use microdata file for the Air Exit Survey (AES) component of the Visitor Travel Survey (VTS), for reference year 2023, is now available (24250002).
Variables of interest tables
For both surveys, the variables of interest tables have been created to provide annual data on travel and demographic characteristics that are not available in other publications for the travel surveys. They are available at the following levels upon request:
• NTS: Visit statistics at the provincial, economic region, tourism region, census metropolitan area and census agglomeration levels (2018 to 2024).
• VTS: Data on AES trips, AES trip activities and AES visits at the provincial level (2018, 2019, 2023 and 2024).
Focus on Canada and the United States
During the first quarter of 2025, Canadian residents took 6.1 million trips that included a visit to the United States, down 10.8% from the first quarter of 2024.
US residents took 3.4 million trips to Canada from January to March 2025, up 1.2% compared with the same quarter of 2024.
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
Episode 27 of the Eh Sayers podcast, "Canadians Just Aren't California Dreamin' These Days," is available.
The articles entitled, "The great big see, from sea to sea to sea: A snapshot of vacations in Canada" and "Rocky Mountain high... in Alberta," are available on the StatsCAN Plus page.
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
Starting with the first quarter of 2025, this consolidated quarterly release covers the following surveys:
- National Travel Survey, which collects information about the domestic and outbound travel of Canadian residents.
- Visitor Travel Survey, which collects information on inbound tourism.
Readers are encouraged to review the concepts, definitions, data sources, methods, limitations and summary of changes for these surveys, especially when making historical comparisons and examining specific regions.
Concepts
A trip can include one or more visits, with the number of visits always being equal to or greater than the number of trips.
A domestic visit is defined as a visit within Canada by a Canadian resident during a domestic or outbound trip. An outbound visit is defined as a visit outside of Canada by a Canadian resident during a domestic or outbound trip.
Data
All estimates in this release are preliminary.
All data in this release are expressed in current dollars unless otherwise noted.
The data in this release are not seasonally adjusted.
This analysis presented in The Daily includes trip, visit and night information for all travellers (including individuals younger than 18 years old).
Canada Post service disruptions
Statistics Canada will monitor the impacts of any potential Canada Post service disruption on future releases.
Next release
The National Travel Survey and Visitor Travel Survey release for the second quarter of 2025 will be released on December 2.
Products
A public use microdata file for the National Travel Survey, for reference year 2023, was released on June 27, 2025 (24250001).
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: