Travel between Canada and other countries, May 2026

Released: 2026-07-23

Highlights

In May, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from the United States increased 9.9% year over year, while trips to Canada by US residents jumped by 13.0%.

Meanwhile, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from overseas rose 3.3% in May compared with the same month a year earlier, while trips to Canada by overseas residents increased 6.2%.

Using seasonally adjusted data, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from abroad (from the United States and overseas countries) was up 1.0% in May, compared with April. The number of US-resident arrivals (+6.9%) and overseas-resident arrivals (+4.3%) also increased in May.

Trips abroad by Canadian residents continue to increase

Canadian-resident return trips from abroad rose 7.8% to 3.7 million in May, marking the second straight month of year-over-year increases.

In May, Canadian residents returned from 2.6 million trips to the United States, representing a 9.9% year-over-year increase and the second consecutive month of growth following 15 consecutive months of year-over-year decreases. Nonetheless, the growth in May was boosted by a base-year effect, as the month showed a steep decline of 24.6% compared with May 2024.

Canadian-resident return trips from the United States by automobile rose 17.7% compared with the same month a year earlier to 1.8 million in May 2026, with 65.5% of these being same-day trips. Return trips by air decreased 3.2% year over year to 703,700, while return trips by cruise ship increased 10.6% to 37,200.

Canadian residents made 1.2 million return trips from overseas countries in May, up 3.3% year over year.

Chart 1 
Year-over-year change in the number of Canadian residents returning to Canada from trips abroad, May 2026

Trips to Canada by United States residents continue to increase

In May, US-resident trips to Canada totalled 2.2 million, rising 13.0% from the same month in 2025 and marking the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year increase.

Arrivals by automobile (1.3 million) were up 13.6% year over year in May, with 52.6% of these arrivals being same-day trips, while arrivals by air increased 6.0% to 510,000. The number of US residents who disembarked in Canada from cruise ships rose 24.5% year over year to 244,900.

Chart 2 
Year-over-year change in the number of United States residents entering Canada, by province or territory of arrival, May 2026

Trips to Canada by overseas residents increase

In May, 665,300 overseas residents arrived in Canada, up 6.2% from the same month one year earlier. The majority (80.2%) of these arrivals were by air.

By volume, arrivals from Europe (+31,000; +12.3%) and the Americas (excluding the United States) (+10,300; +12.1%) drove the year-over-year increase in overseas-resident arrivals in May, offsetting a decrease in arrivals from Asia (-9,800; -4.5%).

In May, the top three countries of residence for overseas visitors were the United Kingdom, India and France, which together accounted for 30.2% of all overseas arrivals in Canada.

Chart 3 
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to May 2026

Seasonally adjusted arrivals

Tourism is influenced by seasonal and calendar effects. All statistics in this section are based on seasonally adjusted data (for more information, see the Note to readers).

On a monthly basis, the number of Canadian-resident return trips from abroad was up 1.0% in May. Although Canadian residents made fewer return trips from overseas (-1.9%) in the month, this decrease was offset by an increase in return trips from the United States (+2.5%).

Chart 4 
Canadian residents returning to Canada and non-resident visitors entering Canada, January 2019 to May 2026, seasonally adjusted data

The overall number of arrivals in Canada by US residents increased 6.9% on a monthly basis in May, driven by higher arrivals by automobile (+4.6%) and by other modes—like cruise ship, ferry and train (+32.6%).

In May, the number of overseas-resident arrivals in Canada rose 4.3% on a monthly basis, driven by an increase in arrivals from Europe (+9.2%), Canada's largest overseas market. At the country level, the overall monthly gain was driven by higher numbers of visitors from the United Kingdom, Germany and Israel, offsetting the lower volume of visitors from India.

Chart 5 
Overseas visitors entering Canada, by continent of residence, January 2019 to May 2026, seasonally adjusted data

Products

The product "Frontier Counts: Interactive Dashboard," part of the Data Visualization Products series (Catalogue number71-607-X), is available.

The article "Canadian-resident travel to the United States: A year in review" is available.

The StatsCAN Plus articles "The Stampede: It's not Calgary's first rodeo" and "The World Cup: Soccer stats versus StatCan stats" are 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).