Canadian travel to the U.S. is still down substantially from last year, but the numbers improved slightly in June.
Statistics Canada today (July 10) said Canadian arrivals into Canada by air from the U.S. were down 22.1% in June of this year when compared to June, 2024. Canadian arrivals from the States by land were down 33.1% in June when compared to the same month last year.
That’s still a major problem for U.S. tourism, but it’s a slight improvement from the previous month. StatsCan said the number of Canadians arriving back in Canada from the U.S. by air in May were down 24.2% compared to the same month in 2024, while arrivals by land were down 38.1% compared to May of last year.
While Canadian air arrivals from the States were down 22.1% last month (totalling 363,900), Stats Can said air arrivals from overseas destinations were up 7.3% compared to June of 2024 (876,800).
Several Canadian airlines recently announced new routes to the Caribbean, Mexico and South America as Canadian travel habits shift away from trips to the States.
The Frontier Duty Free Association said in a statement today that the lack of cross-border traffic is killing duty free shops and border stores.
“This steep decline is devastating local businesses in border communities, especially land border duty free stores, with some reporting sales losses of up to 80%,” the group said.
It’s not just Canadians who are skipping trips to the States. The U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office this week released preliminary June figures showing visits to the States from overseas declined 6.6% in June, year-over-year.
Skift reports overseas arrivals to the States remain stuck at just 80% of 2019 levels, six years after the pandemic.
U.S. travel to Canada is down, but not nearly as much as Canadian travel to the States. According to StatsCan, U.S. resident arrivals into Canada by automobile in June of this year were down 10.4% from June of 2024.
