Third time since June 2006—excluding pandemic period in 2021—when more U.S. residents visited Canada than Canadians returned from U.S.
Canada experienced a sharp shift in international travel patterns in August 2025, with a significant increase in overseas visitors and a steep decline in cross-border trips with the United States, according to Statistics Canada (StatCan).
In August, 886,000 overseas residents arrived in Canada, marking a 9.2 per cent increase compared to August 2024.
StatCan reports that the majority of these visitors—76.6 per cent—arrived by air. The growth was fuelled primarily by travellers from Europe and Asia, with arrivals from Europe up 7.9 per cent and from Asia up 8.4 per cent. The United Kingdom, France, and Germany were the top countries of origin, together accounting for more than one-third of all overseas arrivals.
The United Kingdom led the way with 136,900 visitors, followed by France (102,700) and Germany (63,300). StatCan notes that these three countries made up 34.2 per cent of all overseas arrivals to Canada in August.
Job seekers from outside Canada have previously shown far greater interest in coming to work in the country, according to a previous Indeed report.
Canadian travel to the U.S. plummets
While overseas arrivals surged, travel between Canada and the United States continued to decline, notes StatCan. The number of Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. dropped by 29.7 per cent year over year, one of the sharpest declines on record outside the pandemic period.
This is only the third time since June 2006—excluding the pandemic period in 2021—that more U.S. residents visited Canada than Canadians returned from the United States, according to the report.
Among Canadians who have contemplated a move south of the border in the past five years, just over half (52 per cent) say that the election of Donald Trump as president has decreased their likelihood of considering relocation to the U.S. over the next four years, according to a previous report.
Overall, Canadians made 4.2 million trips abroad in August, a decrease of 21.5 per cent from August 2024, note StatCan. Canadian-resident return trips from the U.S. by automobile fell 32.6 per cent to 2.2 million, with 57.6 per cent of those being same-day trips. Air travel by Canadians returning from the U.S. also declined by 17.0 per cent to 608,800 trips.
Trips to Canada by U.S. residents also decreased for the seventh consecutive month, falling 1.4 per cent year over year to 3.2 million. Arrivals by automobile dropped 3.2 per cent to 2.0 million, with more than half (54.5 per cent) of these being overnight stays. Air arrivals from the U.S. slipped by 0.5 per cent to 655,500, while cruise ship arrivals rose 7.0 per cent to 330,800.
After adjusting for seasonal effects, StatCan reports that Canadian-resident return trips from abroad edged up by 0.1 per cent in August. This slight increase was due to a 0.6 per cent rise in return trips from the U.S. by automobile and a 0.4 per cent increase in return trips from overseas by air.
On the inbound side, seasonally adjusted U.S.-resident arrivals to Canada edged down 0.3 per cent, with decreases in both air (-1.9 per cent) and automobile (-0.4 per cent) arrivals.
Overseas-resident arrivals to Canada increased by 0.5 per cent, led by visitors from Oceania (+7.6 per cent) and Africa (+2.9 per cent). The United Kingdom (+2.0 per cent) and Germany (+5.0 per cent) contributed the most to the monthly increase by volume.
While there has been a surge in the number of temporary foreign workers coming to Canada in recent years, the number arriving from the U.S. has been declining over the past decade, according to a previous StatCan report.
