Was American tourism to Canada higher or lower last December?

A traveler at Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Thursday, Jan. 18, 2023. Photographer: Cole Burston/Bloomberg

Fewer American travellers visited Canada in December 2025 compared to a year earlier, while visits by overseas travellers were up, a new Statistics Canada report shows.

The report released by StatCan on Monday, showed that U.S.-resident travel to Canada was down 7.5 per cent compared to the same month a year earlier, totalling 1.6 million visits.

The number of American visitors travelling by car were down by 7.5 per cent in December 2025, versus the same time a year earlier, with just over half of those trips (50.7 per cent) being same-day.

In contrast, visits by overseas travellers to Canada were up 14.1 per cent – or 509,500 people - in that same time, compared to the same period in 2024. Out of those visitors, 90.7 per cent arrived by air, the data shows.

The top three countries to visit Canada from overseas in that time were the United Kingdom, (59,600), France (52,700) and Mexico (47,200). These three countries made up 31.3 per cent of overseas arrivals last December.

When it came to Canadians’ travel, trips abroad were down 15 per cent compared to a year earlier, totalling 3.5 million trips.

Canadians’ trips from the U.S. by car was down 30.2 per cent to 1.5 million in December of 2025, 68.4 per cent of which were same-day trips.

That same month, Canadians who travelled by air from the U.S. was also down 11 per cent (718,400) versus the same month in 2024.

However, Canadian visitors’ return trips by air to other countries overseas were up by 13.3 per cent (1.2 million) compared to December 2024.

In total, international arrivals to Canada was down 10.9 per cent in 2025, compared to 2024, totalling 72.9 million.