What looked like a shift in 2025 has become a measurable trend

When we first published this article in March 2025, something unusual was beginning to happen. Canadians were reconsidering trips to the United States, international travellers were looking more seriously at Canada, and our own enquiries were rising much faster than expected.

At the time, it was tempting to call it a trend. It was also early enough that doing so required a certain amount of professional optimism and at least one raised eyebrow.

We no longer need the eyebrow.

The completed figures for 2025 and the available data for 2026 show a genuine change in travel patterns. Canadians are spending more holiday time and money at home. Overseas demand for Canada is increasing. Travellers who previously combined Canada with the United States—or chose the United States instead—are reassessing those decisions.

The result is good news for Canadian tourism. It is less convenient for anyone hoping to find a reasonably priced hotel room in Banff in July.

The 2025 figures confirmed the shift

Statistics Canada recorded 29.1 million Canadian-resident return trips from the United States in 2025, a decline of 25.4% from 2024. By contrast, Canadian trips to overseas countries increased 9.2%, reaching 14.2 million.

The change was not simply “Canadians stopped travelling.” They continued to travel, but many chose somewhere other than the United States—or spent more of their holiday budget within Canada.

Inbound travel also moved in Canada’s favour. Overseas-resident arrivals reached 6.8 million in 2025, up 7.5% from the previous year. Canada’s summer tourism season generated an estimated CAD 59 billion, with CAD 44.4 billion coming from Canadian travellers and CAD 14.6 billion from international visitors.

That combination matters. Canada did not merely attract more overseas interest. It also retained more Canadian holiday spending at home.

Destination Canada estimates that this reshored domestic spending added approximately CAD 1.5 billion in 2025 and could add CAD 4.4 billion between 2025 and 2027.

That is excellent news for tourism operators. It does not manufacture additional hotel rooms, rental vehicles or seats on the ferry.

The momentum continued into 2026

Destination Canada forecasts Canadian tourism revenue to grow by another 6% in 2026. During the first quarter, tourism revenue increased 5.6%, supported by a 7.6% rise in international visitor spending. By June, international overnight air arrivals were 4.2% higher than a year earlier.

The July figures added further evidence. Canada welcomed almost 4.6 million non-resident visitors, an increase of 7.9% from July 2025. Overseas-resident arrivals grew 3.7%, including an 8.3% increase from Europe. The United Kingdom, France and Germany together accounted for almost one-third of all overseas arrivals.

The FIFA World Cup contributed to the summer increase, particularly in Vancouver and Toronto. Arrivals from the five overseas countries whose teams played in Canada during July rose 19.5% year over year.

But the World Cup did not create the entire trend. It gave an already moving train a fairly enthusiastic push.

Why are travellers changing their plans?

There is no single reason, and pretending otherwise would make the story much neater than real life.

Price matters. Exchange rates matter. Air access, safety perceptions, border procedures and the simple desire to experience somewhere new all matter.

The political climate matters as well.

That does not require a political argument. Travel is a personal purchase. People spend a considerable amount of money and often their only substantial holiday of the year on it. They naturally prefer destinations where they expect to feel comfortable, welcome and confident about the journey.

A March 2026 Léger survey asked Canadians who were less likely to visit the United States why their interest had fallen. Among those respondents:

• 67% cited the political climate and tensions between Canada and the United States;
• 61% cited tariffs and trade tensions;
• 59% expressed safety concerns;
• 48% said they did not feel welcome;
• 39% pointed to the exchange rate or weak Canadian dollar.

In other words, cost was important—but it was not at the top of the list.

This is not a judgement on individual Americans, U.S. destinations or the many excellent tourism businesses operating there. Nor does it mean that people have stopped visiting the United States. It means that confidence and perception influence destination choices, and those perceptions have changed.

A holiday should ideally begin with anticipation—not with concern that the border crossing may become the most memorable part of the trip.

Canada is not merely the alternative

It would be rather self-congratulatory to suggest that travellers choose Canada only because they have rejected somewhere else.

Canada has a strong attraction of its own: internationally recognised landscapes, vibrant cities, wildlife, coastlines, culture, space and the possibility of combining all of them in one journey. Its reputation for stability and openness has become an additional advantage at precisely the right moment.

For European travellers, Canada offers familiar ease with a very different scale. English or French is widely understood, infrastructure is reliable, and a journey can combine Vancouver, the Pacific coast and the Rocky Mountains—or Toronto, Québec and Atlantic Canada—without crossing an international border halfway through the itinerary.

Canada has not suddenly become inexpensive. Our hotel articles have dealt with that particular fantasy in some detail. But travellers do not judge value solely by the lowest nightly rate. They also consider how a destination makes them feel and what they receive for the time, effort and money invested.

Canadians are rediscovering their own country

The domestic change is equally important.

For decades, a trip south was almost automatic for many Canadians: shopping weekends, winter escapes, sporting events, theme parks, road trips and visits to familiar destinations. That market has not disappeared, but the habit has been interrupted.

Some Canadians are travelling to Europe, Asia, Mexico or the Caribbean instead. Many others are directing more of their holiday spending toward Canada.

That can mean exploring another province rather than staying close to home. A family from Ontario may choose British Columbia. Travellers from Alberta may head to Atlantic Canada. British Columbians who once drove south may finally take the Vancouver Island or northern British Columbia trip they had been postponing for years.

Apparently, it sometimes takes an international disagreement to remind us that our own country is enormous.

A summer rebound does not erase the change

Tourism figures rarely travel in a perfectly straight line. By July 2026, Canadian-resident trips to the United States were 10.1% higher than in July 2025, marking a fourth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.

That sounds like a complete reversal until the comparison is placed in context: July 2025 was exceptionally weak, and Canadian trips to the United States in July 2026 were still 25.6% below July 2024.

U.S. residents were also travelling to Canada in larger numbers, with July arrivals up 9.1% year over year. Travel between neighbouring countries has not stopped, nor should anyone expect it to. Families, friendships, businesses, events and air networks cross the border in both directions.

The meaningful point is not that nobody goes south anymore. It is that a long-established travel habit has weakened—and other destinations, including Canada, have gained serious consideration.

Not everyone avoiding the United States comes to Canada

This distinction matters.

A traveller who decides against a U.S. holiday may choose Canada, but may equally choose Europe, Japan, Mexico, the Caribbean or somewhere entirely different. The decline in U.S. travel cannot simply be added to Canada’s visitor count as though millions of people were being redirected at the border by a helpful sign.

What we can say is that several movements are happening simultaneously:

• more Canadians are spending holiday money within Canada;
• more Canadians are choosing overseas destinations instead of the United States;
• overseas arrivals in Canada are growing;
• and Canada’s reputation is helping it compete for travellers who are reconsidering their options.

Those movements reinforce one another, even though they are not identical.

What we are seeing at Go Kanada Travel

Our own figures are not a national tourism survey, and we will not pretend otherwise. They are, however, a useful view from the booking desk.

During the same period, we have experienced unprecedented growth in enquiries and confirmed business. We are hearing from travellers who had previously considered the United States, from Canadians planning substantial trips at home and from international partners seeing stronger demand for Canada.

The interest is not limited to one destination or one type of guest. It includes individual travellers, private groups, tour operators and specialised programmes.

That growth is welcome. It also confirms something we see every day: demand is rising faster than suitable supply in many of Canada’s most popular destinations.

More demand meets limited supply

Canada is very large. Its most requested destinations are not.

Banff cannot add several thousand hotel rooms because July has become busy. Tofino remains a small community at the end of a long road. Remote lodges have a fixed number of cabins. Ferries, rental fleets, guides and popular attractions all have practical capacity limits.

When more international visitors arrive while more Canadians travel domestically, those limits become visible very quickly:

• suitable hotels sell out earlier;
• minimum stays become more restrictive;
• flexible rates disappear;
• dynamic pricing pushes remaining rooms higher;
• rental vehicles and ferry reservations become harder to secure;
• and the most attractive alternatives vanish first.

Our detailed articles on hotel prices in Banff and the Canadian Rockies, hotel prices and availability in Tofino and the real cost behind cheap Canadian hotel prices explain how this affects actual bookings.

Canada’s popularity is wonderful. It has not yet persuaded the Rockies to produce spare hotel rooms by mitosis.

What this means for travellers

The practical consequences are straightforward:

Plan earlier than you once did. A July itinerary through Vancouver, Vancouver Island and the Rockies should not be treated as a last-minute project.

Expect popular regions to cost more. Increased demand is meeting limited accommodation supply, particularly during the main summer months.

Look at the entire itinerary, not one attractive rate. A cheap room is not useful if it creates an impossible drive, an unavailable ferry connection or three additional nights elsewhere.

Remain flexible where possible. Different dates, room categories, arrival days or nearby communities can make the difference between a sensible booking and an expensive compromise.

Talk to us early. We are not trying to find the cheapest isolated component. We are trying to secure the best workable combination of route, accommodation, conditions and value before the useful options disappear.

The bottom line

The travel shift first observed in early 2025 did not vanish. It developed into a broader change in where people feel comfortable spending their holiday time and money.

Political and economic conditions helped trigger it. Canada’s own qualities turned that opportunity into genuine demand. Stronger domestic travel, growing overseas arrivals and an excellent international reputation are now placing additional pressure on a tourism infrastructure that was hardly sitting empty to begin with.

For Canada, this is an extraordinary opportunity.

For travellers, it is another reason not to wait until the best rooms, routes and dates have already been claimed by somebody who spoke to us six months earlier.

Note on statistics

The figures in this article reflect the latest available information at the time of publication. Tourism statistics are revised periodically, and monthly comparisons can be affected by major events, calendar differences and unusually strong or weak comparison periods.

Sources

• Statistics Canada: Travel between Canada and other countries, December 2025 and annual review
• Statistics Canada: Travel between Canada and other countries, July 2026
• Destination Canada: Media Backgrounder — Canadian Tourism Industry
• Destination Canada: Canadian Tourism Outlook 2026–2035
• Léger: Canada–U.S. travel trends and travel intentions, 2026