Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, October 2025
Released: 2025-11-12
784,826
October 2025
4.2% 
(12-month change)
1,401,437
October 2025
-5.2% 
(12-month change)
1,032,878
October 2025
-0.7%
(12-month change)
1,387,976
October 2025
-30.5%
(12-month change)
In October, the preliminary number of international arrivals to Canada (returning Canadian residents and non-residents combined) by air and automobile was 4.6 million, down 12.6% from October 2024. This was the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Non-resident trips to Canada by air increase
In October, non-resident arrivals to Canada by air totalled 784,800, up 4.2% from October 2024 (Chart 1). Of these arrivals, 389,100 were US residents (+1.3%) and 395,700 were overseas residents (+7.1%).
According to daily traffic data, average daily arrivals by US residents from Thursday, October 9 to Friday, October 10 (20,700) were 58.0% higher than the average of the other Thursday-to-Friday periods in the month. This increase coincided with the start of the Columbus Day long weekend in the United States. Friday, October 3 saw the highest number of arrivals for overseas residents (19,500).
For the International Day of the Air Traffic Controller on October 20, see Directing traffic in the skies on StatsCAN Plus.
Chart 1
Non-resident trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, October, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 1
Trips to Canada by commercial aircraft, by geography of residence, October 2025
Canadian-resident return trips by air decline
Canadian-resident return trips by air from abroad stood at 1.4 million, down 5.2% from the same month one year earlier (Chart 2). Though the number of returning Canadian-resident trips from overseas countries by air increased 6.8% from October 2024 to 964,200 in October 2025, the number of trips by air from the United States declined 23.9% to 437,300.
In October, the highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals per day was observed on Thanksgiving, Monday, October 13 (59,400), and the lowest was seen on Thursday, October 2 (32,800).
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad by commercial aircraft, October, 2019 to 2025
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile edge down
In October, the number of US-resident trips to Canada by automobile (1.0 million) edged down by 0.7% from the same month in 2024 (Chart 3). This was the ninth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
From Thursday, October 9, to Friday, October 10, 2025, before the Columbus Day long weekend in the United States, an average of 59,000 US-resident arrivals per day was observed. This average was 62.8% higher than the average for the remaining Thursday-to-Friday periods in October.
Chart 3
US-resident trips to Canada by automobile, October, 2019 to 2025
Infographic 2
Trips to Canada by automobile, by country of residence, October 2025
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile decline
In October, the number of Canadian-resident return trips by automobile from the United States totalled 1.4 million, a steep decline (-30.5%) from the same month in 2024 (Chart 4), marking the 10th consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
The highest number of returning Canadian-resident arrivals was observed on Thanksgiving, Monday, October 13 (106,100). This number was 148.4% higher than the average for the other Mondays in October.
Chart 4
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile, October, 2019 to 2025
Focus on Canada and the United States
In October 2025, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents by air increased 1.3% from the same month in 2024, while arrivals by automobile decreased 0.7%.
Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by air fell 23.9% in October 2025 compared with the same month one year earlier. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile dropped 30.5%.
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.
For other tourism-related information, see the Travel and Tourism Statistics portal.
Note to readers
This release provides an early indicator of travel based on preliminary data on international arrivals to Canada for October 2025 for air and automobile (arrivals by automobile made by overseas residents are not included in this release). Complete counts will be available with the release of "Travel between Canada and other countries" on December 22.
For more information on concepts, definitions, data sources and methods, refer to Frontier Counts.
Data sources
All counts of arrivals by air are from commercial aircraft and are produced exclusively using primary inspection kiosk (PIK) data received from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). PIKs were deployed at Toronto Pearson International Airport Terminal 1 on June 22, 2021, and, as of July 2021, these arrivals are included in the total counts, which has consequently improved coverage. In 2024, PIKs captured 90.3% of all commercial air arrivals.
Counts of arrivals to the country by automobile through land ports equipped with the CBSA's automated Integrated Primary Inspection Line (IPIL) system represent a subset of US-resident trips and Canadian-resident return trips by automobile. In 2024, IPIL land ports captured 88.9% of all automobile entries.
Next release
The Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada for November 2025 will be released on December 10.
Products
The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is available.
The article "Recent changes in Canadian-resident travel to the United States" is available.
Episode 27 of the Eh Sayers podcast "Canadians just aren't California Dreamin' these days" is available.
The infographic "Tourism activity, 2024" is also 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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