Canadians travelled more this spring and far fewer went to the U.S.: StatCan

Canadian and American flags fly near the Ambassador Bridge at the Canada-USA border crossing in Windsor, Ont. on Saturday, March 21, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Rob Gurdebeke

The number of Canadians who took trips in the second quarter increased compared to the same period last year, but trips to the U.S. plummeted by more than 20 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

Canadian residents took 99.3 million trips from April to June of this year, up 8.5 per cent year-over-year, StatCan said in a release on Tuesday. Of those trips, only 5.6 million of them included an outbound visit to the U.S., representing a 21.6 per cent drop compared to last year.

Nearly 40 per cent of Canadian visits to the U.S. in the quarter were same-day trips, StatCan found.

“Expenditures during visits to the United States totalled $4.8 billion, a decline of 14.9 per cent from the second quarter of 2024,” the release said.

“In the United States, Canadian residents spent an average of $125 per same day visit in the second quarter of 2025. For overnight stays, Canadian residents spent on average $1,312 per visit, and the average visit length was 7.3 nights.”

During the period examined by StatCan, U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade and tariff rhetoric reached its peak, culminating in his “Liberation Day” announcement on April 2.

Amid numerous threats from Trump to tax Canadian goods entering the U.S., in addition to comments he made about making Canada the “51st state,” many Canadians opted to avoid travel south of the border.

StatCan’s data suggests many of those travellers decided to take domestic trips instead.

“In the second quarter, Canadian residents took 90.6 million trips that included a domestic visit, up 10.9 per cent on a year-over-year basis,” the agency said in the release.

Same-day visits within Canada rose more than 12 per cent in the quarter, according to StatCan, while overnight visits rose 8.4 per cent.

“From April to June, Canadian residents spent $20.3 billion on domestic tourism, up 13.5 per cent year over year,” the release read.

“For same-day visits, Canadian residents spent an average of $101 per visit. For overnight visits, Canadian residents spent on average $449 per visit, and the average visit length was 2.6 nights.”

StatCan also found that more Canadians took trips oversees this spring compared to last year. In the second quarter, Canadian travellers took 3.3 million trips to foreign countries other than the U.S., representing a 10.4 per cent increase year-over-year, the agency said.