Canada continues to see decline in U.S. and overseas visitors: Statistics Canada

An Air Canada flight taxis to a runway as a WestJet flight takes off at Vancouver International Airport, in Richmond, B.C., on Friday, March 20, 2020. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck)

Canada is experiencing a steady decline in both U.S. and overseas visitors, according to the latest Statistics Canada data.

In April, the number of trips to Canada by U.S. residents was down 8.9 per cent year-over-year, while visits by overseas residents were down 0.6 per cent.

This was the third consecutive month of declining visits by U.S. residents and the seventh consecutive month of declining trips by visitors from overseas.

In the same period, the number of Canadians returning from trips to the U.S. dropped by a staggering 29.1 per cent, marking the fourth consecutive month of decline, while overseas air travel by Canadians returning to the country increased by 9.1 per cent. In total, Canadians returned from 3.6 million trips abroad in April, including 2.3 million trips to the U.S. – an overall decline of 18.9 per cent from April 2024.

The drop in overseas visitors to Canada was driven by fewer arrivals from Asia, which were down by 12.6 per cent year-over-year. By contrast, there was an increase in arrivals to Canada from Europe and the Americas, excluding the U.S.

In April, the top three sources of overseas visitors were the United Kingdom (61,500 people), France (39,600) and Mexico (39,500), which together accounted for more than one third (34.4 per cent) of all 408,200 overseas arrivals in Canada.

Despite a decline, the vast majority of visitors to Canada in April still came from the U.S. (76.7 per cent), representing 1.3 million trips.