Are Canadians still shunning U.S. travel? New StatCan data shows insights

March marked the fifteenth consecutive month where Canadian travel to the U.S. declined. CTV News’ Rachel Aiello breaks down the numbers.

Canadians’ boycott of U.S. travel still appears to be strong.

Canadian residents made fewer trips to the United States in March, new Statistics Canada data suggests, marking the 15th straight month of year-over-year declines.

Canadian residents returned from 2.6 million trips to the U.S. in March, a 6.4 per cent dip from the same month last year, according to a StatCan report published Thursday.

Return trips from the U.S. by air fell 10.8 per cent to 934,100 in the same period.

Meanwhile, return trips by automobile from the U.S. declined 3.3 per cent to 1.6 million. Most of these trips, or 63.7 per cent, were same-day travel.

The downward trend in the number of Canadians returning from visits south of the border has been occurring since early 2025 amid political tensions, according to StatCan.

Many Canadians have supported the “Buy Canadian” movement and boycotted U.S. travel in protest of the Trump administration’s tariffs and 51st state rhetoric.

The decline in the number of Canadian return trips from the U.S. was even steeper at 28 per cent, when comparing the data from March 2026 with March 2024. Over that time, automobile trips fell by 33.7 per cent and trips by air were down 15.3 per cent.

Some Canadians may not be visiting the U.S. for another reason, said Martin Firestone, president of Travel Secure Inc., a travel insurance brokerage in Toronto. He said his clients are mainly snowbirds who own or rent accommodation, and regularly visit the warmer parts of the U.S.

“My clientele for the most part has, and is continuing to, travel to the United States,” he said in a Zoom interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday. “I don’t believe the snowbird class got affected as much as others.”

However, he said those who have decided not to travel south of the border are more concerned about the significantly low value of the loonie against the U.S. dollar, making travelling much more expensive.

U.S. visitor trends

While Canadians’ trips to the U.S. continued to drop, it was the opposite for American visitors to Canada.

U.S. residents took 1.3 million trips to Canada in March. That’s up 4.4 per cent from the same month in 2025 and the third year-over-year increase. Before the rebound, the numbers had declined since February 2025.

U.S. residents’ trips to Canada by car were up 4.7 per cent to 923,600. Most of these trips, or 56.3 per cent, were same-day travel.

Air arrivals rose three per cent to 340,900. Comparing March 2026 with March 2024, the number of trips declined slightly by 1.7 per cent, primarily due to a drop in trips by automobile at 4.3 per cent.