Return trips from U.S. drop again in July as Canadians continue to shun U.S.

Canadian and U.S. flags fly atop the Peace Arch monument at the Douglas-Peace Arch border crossing in Surrey, B.C., on Monday, Nov. 8, 2021. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OTTAWA — Statistics Canada says the number of Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. by automobile in July dropped 36.9 per cent compared with a year ago, the seventh consecutive month of year-over-year declines.

The agency says the number of return trips by Canadian residents from the U.S. by car totalled 1.7 million in July.

The decline came as U.S.-resident trips to Canada by automobile totalled 1.8 million in July, down 7.4 per cent from the same month in 2024.

Meanwhile, Canadian-resident return trips from abroad by air stood at 1.4 million in July, down 5.3 per cent from the same month a year earlier as the number of return trips by air from the U.S. totalled 383,700, down 25.8 per cent from a year ago. The number of Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries rose 5.9 per cent to one million.

Non-resident arrivals to Canada by air in July totalled 1.4 million, up 3.1 per cent from a year ago.

Overall, Statistics Canada says its preliminary reading of returning Canadian residents and non-residents combined by air and automobile was 6.3 million in July, down 15.6 per cent from July 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 11, 2025.

The Canadian Press