US tourism still in freefall

According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadians taking a car trip to the United States – the main mode of transport for Canadian tourists – fell by 33% in June compared with the same month last year. This follows a 38% drop in May.

The number of air passengers from Canada also fell by 22% year-on-year.

June marks the sixth consecutive month of sharp declines in the number of Canadians visiting the United States.

Between the tariff war with the U.S., threats of annexation by U.S. President Donald Trump and the rise in detentions of Canadian tourists at the U.S. border, many Canadians have said goodbye to their getaways to their southern neighbors.

According to a survey of over 1,500 adult Canadians conducted by marketing firm Léger, 56% of Canadians who were planning a visit to the U.S. this year ended up traveling elsewhere.

However, Americans also followed this trend: fewer American tourists travelled to Canada in June than a year earlier. In fact, the number of American visitors travelling by car fell by 10% in June, and by 8% in May.

According to the U.S. National Travel & Tourism Office (NTTO), Canadians made up around a quarter of all foreign visitors to the U.S. in 2024. They collectively spent $20.5 billion there. The U.S. Travel Association (USTA) warned in February that a decline of just 10% in Canadian tourism could jeopardize 140,000 American hotel and tourism jobs.

According to Tourism Economics, an independent arm of Oxford Economics, international tourism in the U.S. is set to decline by around 9% in 2025, with spending by international visitors expected to fall by 4.7% ($8.5 billion) year-on-year.