Canadians Turn Their Backs on U.S. Travel as Trade War Tensions Bite

Statistics Canada’s National Travel Survey and Visitor Travel Survey painted a striking picture of a country quietly voting with its feet. In the last quarter of 2025, Canadians took just 5.4 million trips to the United States, a 24 per cent drop from the same period the year before. That decline outpaced the broader pullback in international travel, which saw overall trips abroad fall 13 per cent to 8.7 million during the same window.

The timing was no coincidence. The October-to-December stretch covered the first major holiday season since trade tensions between Canada and the United States escalated into a full-blown tariff war and the numbers suggest many Canadians made a deliberate choice to stay away.

It wasn’t just fewer trips. Canadians who did cross the border also opened their wallets less. Spending in the U.S. totaled $4 billion over those three months, down 16.4 per cent year-over-year. Among those who made it a day trip about four in ten U.S.-bound travellers the average spend came in at $167. Those who stayed overnight spent an average of $1,138 per visit.

Canadian travellers redirected their appetite for international adventure toward destinations overseas, and the numbers show a stunning reversal of fortune. Spending at non-U.S. international destinations surged 25.3 per cent to $7.6 billion, with Canadians averaging $2,278 per trip and nearly two weeks abroad 13.4 nights on average. Mexico led the pack as the top overseas destination, drawing 673,000 Canadian visitors, followed by France at 236,000 and the Dominican Republic at 231,000.

The shift was perhaps the clearest sign yet that Canadians are actively rerouting their travel plans not just cutting back.

Domestic travel dipped in volume, with Canadians taking 74.9 million trips involving an overnight or same-day stop within Canada in the fourth quarter down 6.2 per cent from the year before. Yet despite fewer trips, Canadians actually spent more on domestic tourism: $16.7 billion, a three per cent increase over the same period in 2024. Those who stayed home for day trips spent an average of $103, while overnight travellers within Canada averaged $462 per visit.

The data underscores a quiet but consequential realignment in Canadian travel habits one driven as much by politics as by personal preference. Whether the trend holds through 2026 will likely depend on how the trade relationship between Ottawa and Washington evolves in the months ahead.