Canadians’ travel to the U.S. has increased for the second straight month following consecutive months of declining numbers.
This past May, the number of Canadian resident return trips from the U.S. increased 9.9 per cent year over year, while trips to Canada by U.S. residents jumped by 13 per cent from May 2025, according to Statistics Canada data released Thursday.
Canadian residents returned from 2.6 million trips to the U.S., the second consecutive month of growth, following a 15-month drop in travel to the U.S.
In addition, U.S. resident trips to Canada totalled 2.2 million, marking the fourth straight month of year-over-year increases.
The overall number of arrivals to Canada by U.S. residents also increased 6.9 per cent in May, driven by higher arrivals by automobile (4.6 per cent) and 32.6 per cent combined via cruise ship, ferry and train.
The number of return trips involving Canadian residents from overseas rose 3.3 per cent this May compared to the same time a year prior.
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Separate data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday states that in 2025, “Canadians shifted outbound leisure travel away from the United States (-21.5 per cent; -3.2 million visits) in favour of overseas options (+12.2 per cent; +1.1 million visits).”
Travel to visit family and friends in the U.S. also declined by nine per cent in the same year.
All in all, Canadian travel spending to the U.S. equalled $18.8 billion in 2025, while spending on overseas travel came to $81.3 billion.
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Overseas residents continuing to travel to Canada
In May, 665,300 overseas residents arrived in Canada, an uptick of 6.2 per cent from May 2025. The majority (80.2 per cent) of these arrivals came via air travel.
By volume, arrivals from Europe (12.3 percent) and the Americas (excluding the U.S., equalling 12.1 per cent) drove the year-over-year increase in overseas-resident arrivals this May, offsetting a decrease in arrivals from Asia (-4.5 per cent). Statistics Canada notes Europe as “Canada’s largest overseas market.”
The top three countries of residence for overseas visitors in May were the U.K., India and France, which together accounted for 30.2 per cent of all overseas arrivals in Canada.
Canadians were noted to have “made fewer return trips from overseas” in May, but “this decrease was offset by an increase in return trips from the United States.”