U.S. visits to Canada edge higher in October as Canadians cut back on trips south, Statistics Canada reports

Travel by U.S. residents to Canada showed modest growth in October, marking the first year-over-year increase in eight months, according to new data from Statistics Canada. The agency says Americans made just over 1.8 million trips to Canada during the month, a three per cent rise compared with October last year.

The increase comes as Canadians continued to reduce travel to the United States. Statistics Canada reports Canadian residents made about 2.34 million return trips from the U.S. in October, a sharp drop of more than 26 per cent compared with the same period in 2024.

The ongoing decline in southbound travel has been closely watched by tourism operators and border communities in Canada, including in British Columbia and Alberta, where cross-border trips play a key role in local economies. Factors such as exchange rates, higher travel costs, and broader economic uncertainty have been cited in recent months as possible reasons for Canadians delaying or cancelling U.S. travel.

International travel to Canada from overseas markets continued to strengthen in October. Trips by residents from outside the United States totalled nearly 549,000, an increase of almost 12 per cent from a year earlier.

Statistics Canada says arrivals from Europe rose by more than 10 per cent year over year, while travel from Asia increased by nearly 15 per cent. At the same time, Canadian residents returning from overseas travel climbed to just under one million trips, up from about 915,000 in October last year.