Canadian residents made 2.2 million return trips from the United States in November 2025, down 23.6 per cent from a year earlier, Statistics Canada reported on Jan. 23, 2026. At the same time, Canadians’ return trips from overseas countries rose 13.6 per cent, and U.S. residents’ trips to Canada fell 9.0 per cent.
The cross-border slump deepens
The November figures extend a slump in cross-border travel that has run through the trade war. Return trips from the United States by automobile fell 28.2 per cent year over year to 1.5 million, with 68.5 per cent of them same-day trips — the cross-border shopping and day-trip traffic that border communities on both sides depend on. Return trips by air from the U.S. fell 12.1 per cent to 721,600.
Overall, Canadian residents returned from 3.3 million trips abroad in November, down 14.4 per cent from November 2024. Trips to the United States accounted for 67.1 per cent of all trips abroad taken by Canadian residents in the month, a share that has been shrinking as the U.S. tally falls.
Overseas travel tells the opposite story
While U.S. travel shrank, Canadians travelled farther afield. Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries were up 13.6 per cent compared with November 2024, and return trips by air from overseas rose 14.1 per cent to 1.1 million. On a seasonally adjusted basis, Canadian-resident return trips from abroad rose 1.9 per cent from October, driven by the overseas-by-air category — evidence that travellers are substituting destinations rather than cancelling travel altogether.
Visitors are also coming to Canada from overseas in greater numbers. Overseas residents made 324,200 trips to Canada in November, up 13.6 per cent, with the majority — 85.6 per cent — arriving by air. Europe (up 14.8 per cent) and Asia (up 16.9 per cent) supplied the growth. The top three countries of residence for overseas visitors were the United Kingdom (33,700), France (26,200) and India (22,900), together accounting for a quarter of all overseas arrivals.
Fewer Americans coming north, too
U.S. residents took 1.3 million trips to Canada in November, down 9.0 per cent from the same month in 2024. Arrivals by automobile fell 9.5 per cent to 969,300 — 58.3 per cent of them same-day trips — while air arrivals dropped 8.4 per cent to 299,900.
Ontario saw the largest decline in U.S.-resident arrivals, partly because of a base-year effect: November 2024 had posted a swift increase coinciding with a series of high-profile concerts in Toronto, when Taylor Swift played six sold-out shows. Statistics Canada also noted that flights to Canada in November 2025 may have been affected by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration’s reduction of flights at 40 of the busiest U.S. airports during the U.S. government shutdown.
The pattern matters economically: every return trip forgone is spending that stays in Canada or moves to a third country instead, while the drop in U.S.-resident arrivals cuts into tourism receipts for border-region businesses and big-city hotels alike.
The agency cautions that 2025 travel data incorporate a new border-processing data source, and advises care when comparing reference months with earlier years — but the direction of travel, in every sense, is unmistakable.
