Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, March 2026
Released: 2026-04-13
2,008,678
March 2026
-7.6% 
(12-month change)
1,542,906
March 2026
4.9% 
(12-month change)
1,099,483
March 2026
4.0%
(12-month change)
294,634
March 2026
9.3%
(12-month change)
In March, the preliminary number of international arrivals to Canada (Canadian-resident return trips, combined with US-resident and overseas-resident arrivals) by air and automobile totalled 4.9 million, down 0.5% from March 2025.
Chart 1
International arrivals to Canada, March, 2024 to 2026
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States decline, while trips from overseas are up
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad (from the United States and overseas countries) stood at 3.6 million in March 2026, down 2.5% from the same month one year earlier.
In March, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States totalled 2.0 million, a 7.6% decline that was driven by decreases in return trips by automobile (-4.5%) and by air (-13.8%).
In contrast, Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries by air totalled 1.5 million in March, up 4.9% from the same month one year earlier. For the third consecutive month, a greater number of Canadian residents returned from overseas by air (1.5 million in March) than from the United States by auto (1.4 million in March).
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips, March, 2024 to 2026
In March, the highest number of return trips from abroad by Canadian residents was observed on Sunday, March 22 (173,800) and the lowest was seen on Wednesday, March 11 (85,400).
Infographic 1
International arrivals to Canada, March 2026
United States-resident trips to Canada increase by automobile and by air
US-resident trips to Canada increased 4.0% in March, reaching 1.1 million, the second consecutive increase after 12 consecutive months of year-over-year declines.
In March, US residents made 803,500 trips to Canada by automobile (+4.3%) and 296,000 trips by air (+3.1%).
The highest numbers of daily arrivals for March were observed on Friday, March 27 and Saturday, March 28 (119,300 over both days). The lowest was seen on Tuesday, March 3 (20,300).
Chart 3
United States-resident trips to Canada, March, 2024 to 2026
Overseas-resident trips to Canada increase
Overseas-resident trips to Canada totalled 294,600 in March, up 9.3% from the same month a year earlier. A greater number of overseas residents arrived in Canada by air (274,200; +11.5% year over year) than by automobile (20,400; -13.3% year over year) in March 2026.
The highest number of arrivals per day for March of overseas residents was observed on Friday, March 27 (13,100), and the lowest was seen on Sunday, March 22 (7,600).
Chart 4
Overseas-resident trips to Canada, March, 2024 to 2026
Focus on Canada and the United States
Starting in early 2025, travel trends among Canadian residents shifted alongside the political tensions between Canada and the United States. In March 2026, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by air fell 13.8% year over year. Canadian-resident return trips by automobile fell 4.5% from March 2025 to March 2026 due to a base-year effect. When comparing March 2026 with March 2024, the number of automobile trips from the United States dropped 34.9%.
Meanwhile, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents by air increased 3.1% from the same month in 2025, while arrivals by automobile increased 4.3%.
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 March 2026 for air and automobile (including arrivals by automobile made by overseas residents). Complete counts will be available with the release of "Travel between Canada and other countries" on May 21.
For more information on concepts, definitions, data sources and methods, refer to Frontier Counts.
Data enhancement — deployment of primary inspection kiosks at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport
Primary inspection kiosks (PIKs) were deployed at John C. Munro Hamilton International Airport on February 3, 2026. Starting with the March 2026 reference month, "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada" includes data from this new PIK airport, leading to improved coverage.
PIK replaces Integrated Primary Inspection Line - Air as the main data source for this port of entry. This switch will be reflected in "Travel between Canada and other countries" starting with the February 2026 reference month and will have minimal impact to the data.
Data sources
All counts of arrivals by air are from commercial aircraft and are produced exclusively using PIK data received from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). In 2025, PIKs captured 86.2% 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 all trips by automobile. In 2025, IPIL land ports captured 87.9% of all automobile entries.
Next release
The Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada for April 2026 will be released on May 11.
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.
The StatsCAN Plus article "Canada's cruise industry even keeled in 2025" 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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