Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, May 2026
Released: 2026-06-11
1,945,567
May 2026
9.5% 
(12-month change)
1,110,209
May 2026
3.0%
(12-month change)
1,633,694
May 2026
10.1%
(12-month change)
513,525
May 2026
3.7%
(12-month change)
In May, 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 5.2 million, up 7.6% from the same month in 2025. May 2026 marked the second year-over-year increase in international arrivals since January 2025.
Chart 1
International arrivals to Canada, May, 2024 to 2026
Canadian-resident return trips from the United States and from overseas increase
Canadian-resident return trips from abroad by automobile and air (from the United States and overseas countries) stood at 3.1 million in May 2026, up 7.0% from the same month one year earlier.
In May, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States totalled 1.9 million, up 9.5% from the same month in 2025. Driven by an increase in return trips by automobile (+15.1%), the increase in overall return trips from the United States in May 2026 marked both the second consecutive month of year-over-year increases and the second increase since December 2024. In contrast, return trips from the United States by air in May decreased 5.5% from May 2025.
Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries by air totalled 1.1 million in May 2026, up 3.0% from the same month one year earlier.
Chart 2
Canadian-resident return trips, May, 2024 to 2026
In May, the highest numbers of return trips from abroad by Canadian residents were observed over the Victoria Day long weekend, from Sunday, May 17 to Monday, May 18 (318,400 over the two days). The lowest was seen on Wednesday, May 13 (72,400).
Infographic 1
International arrivals to Canada, May 2026
United States-resident trips to Canada increase by automobile and by air
US-resident trips to Canada increased 10.1% in May, reaching 1.6 million and marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year increases.
In May, US residents made 1.2 million trips to Canada by automobile (+12.7%) and 456,600 trips by air (+3.8%).
The highest numbers of daily arrivals for May were observed over the Memorial Day long weekend in the United States, on Friday, May 22 and Saturday, May 23 (229,500 over both days).
Chart 3
United States-resident trips to Canada, May, 2024 to 2026
Overseas-resident trips to Canada increase
Overseas-resident trips to Canada totalled 513,500 in May, up 3.7% from the same month one year earlier. A greater number of overseas residents arrived in Canada by air (472,700; +4.0% year over year) than by automobile (40,800; -0.3% year over year) in May.
The highest number of arrivals per day for May of overseas residents was observed on Saturday, May 23 (21,700).
Chart 4
Overseas-resident trips to Canada, May, 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 May 2026, Canadian-resident return trips from the United States increased 9.5% from the same month in 2025, marking the second month of year-over-year increase since December 2024. The increase in May was due to a base-year effect. When comparing the number of trips in May 2026 with May 2024, a decline of 28.7% was observed, driven by fewer trips by automobile (-28.7% from May 2024) and by air (-28.4% from May 2024).
Meanwhile, the number of arrivals to Canada by US residents increased 10.1% in May 2026 from the same month in 2025. Arrivals by automobile increased 12.7% while arrivals by air increased 3.8%.
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 May 2026 for air and automobile. Complete counts will be available with the release of "Travel between Canada and other countries" on July 23.
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). 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 June 2026 will be released on July 13.
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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