For the second month in a row — after a year of decline — the number of Americans travelling to Canada has increased.
But Canadians are not easing up on their reluctance to travel south, with fewer and fewer heading to America by both land and air.
According to the latest report from Statistics Canada, U.S. resident trips to Canada increased by four per cent this March compared to last, reaching 1.1 million visitors. Broken down by mode of transportation, 4.3 per cent more Americans travelled north via automobile this March compared to last, and 3.1 per cent more came by air.
Meanwhile, the number of Canadian return trips to the United States continues to spiral downward. This March, 7.6 per cent fewer Canadians made return trips to the U.S. — 13.8 per cent fewer by air and 4.5 per cent fewer by land.
This decline compounds the dramatic decrease that began before last March in response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs. Compared with March 2024, the number of Canadian-resident return trips has dropped by 34.9 per cent.
This contrasts with the latest data on Canadians travelling elsewhere. Compared with a year earlier, 4.9 per cent more Canadian-resident return trips were recorded to destinations outside the United States.
And March was the third month in a row that the number of Canadians returning from abroad by air exceeded the number returning by automobile from the United States, 1.5 million to 1.4 million.
Trips to Canada by overseas residents are also rising, up 9.3 per cent this March over last.