Statistics Canada said the pullback in U.S. trips deepened through 2025 as leisure and family travel weakened, before crossings began to stabilize later in the year.
Canadians spent $18.8 billion on trips to the United States in 2025, down $3.3 billion from a year earlier, as travel to the U.S. weakened during a year of heightened economic and political strain between the two countries. Statistics Canada said leisure travel to the U.S. fell by $2.2 billion, while Canadians increased leisure travel to international destinations outside the U.S. by $3.6 billion. Family-related travel to the U.S. also declined, though at a slower pace than leisure trips. The retreat intensified as the year progressed, with border crossing volumes bottoming in July at nearly one-third below year-earlier levels before stabilizing later in 2025 at about one-quarter below 2024 readings. The agency said the pattern marked the lowest number of border crossings since digital records for the Frontier Counts program began in 1972, excluding the pandemic period, and noted that year-over-year declines of more than 30% had previously been seen only after the Sept. 11 attacks. The report linked the shift to a broader change in the economic and political backdrop after President Trump’s second term began, a period that included tariffs on Canadian goods that were later mostly repealed in a February Supreme Court ruling. CBC said travel has since started to edge higher as officials try to repair cross-border ties through an advertising campaign.