Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, April 2026
Released: 2026-05-11
1,849,815
April 2026
1.4% 
(12-month change)
1,320,922
April 2026
5.3%
(12-month change)
1,190,916
April 2026
7.3%
(12-month change)
366,770
April 2026
-3.1% 
(12-month change)
In April, 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 4.7 million, up 3.5% from the same month in 2025. April 2026 marked the first year-over-year increase in international arrivals since January 2025.
Chart 1
International arrivals to Canada, April, 2024 to 2026
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States and from overseas increase
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad (from the United States and overseas countries) stood at 3.2 million in April 2026, up 3.0% from the same month one year earlier.
In April, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States totalled 1.8 million, up 1.4% from the same month in 2025. Driven by an increase in return trips by automobile (+5.8%), April marks the first month since December 2024 that a year-over-year increase in overall return trips from the United States has occurred. In contrast, return trips from the United States by air decreased 8.1% from April 2025.
Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries by air totalled 1.3 million in April 2026, up 5.3% from the same month one year earlier.
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips, April, 2024 to 2026
In April, the highest number of return trips from abroad by Canadian residents was observed on Easter Monday, April 6 (149,000) and the lowest was seen on Wednesday, April 22 (85,600).
Infographic 1
International arrivals to Canada, April 2026
United States-resident trips to Canada increase by automobile and by air
US-resident trips to Canada increased 7.3% in April, reaching 1.2 million and marking the third consecutive month of year-over-year increases.
In April, US residents made 870,400 trips to Canada by automobile (+6.1%) and 320,500 trips by air (+10.8%).
The highest numbers of daily arrivals for April were observed over the Easter long weekend, on Good Friday, April 3 and Saturday, April 4 (131,300 over both days). The lowest was seen on Tuesday, April 14 (23,500).
Chart 3
United States-resident trips to Canada, April, 2024 to 2026
Overseas-resident trips to Canada decrease
Overseas-resident trips to Canada totalled 366,800 in April, down 3.1% from the same month one year earlier. A greater number of overseas residents arrived in Canada by air (338,200; -1.5% year over year) than by automobile (28,600; -19.0% year over year) in April 2026.
The highest number of arrivals per day for April of overseas residents was observed on Thursday, April 2 (15,500), and the lowest was seen on Tuesday, April 14 (9,800).
Chart 4
Overseas-resident trips to Canada, April, 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 April 2026, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States increased 1.4% from the same month in 2025, marking the first month of year-over-year increase since December 2024. This was due to a base-year effect. When comparing the number of trips in April 2026 with April 2024, a decline of 30.0% was observed, driven by fewer trips by automobile (-31.4% from April 2024) and by air (-26.4% from April 2024).
Meanwhile, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents by air increased 10.8% in April 2026 from the same month in 2025. Arrivals by automobile increased 6.1%.
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 April 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 June 23.
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.
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 May 2026 will be released on June 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" and its accompanying infographic "Cruise ship tourism in Canada, 2025" are available.
Episode 27 of the Eh Sayers podcast "Canadians just aren't California Dreamin' these days" 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).
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