Canadian travel numbers to the US keep getting worse

The Trump administration has repeatedly denied a tourism dropoff.

May 16, 2025 - 00:06

Canadian travel numbers to the US keep getting worse

While President Donald Trump has dialed back his earlier rhetoric calling Canada the "51st state" and then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau its "governor," Canadians are largely holding firm on the choice not to travel to the U.S. in protest of the current administration's politics toward their country.

Numbers from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) show that border crossings from Canada dropped by 12.5% in February and 18% in March, while airlines like Air Canada (ACDVF) and WestJet have both canceled multiple routes to smaller U.S. cities amid a sudden dropoff in demand.

Separate numbers from the Flight Centre Travel Group Canada show that business travel from Canada also fell by 40% in the first months of 2025.

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New report shows that 'return trips from the U.S. continued to decline'

"Due to a downward shift in demand, WestJet has updated its summer schedule to help Canadians fly where they want to go," the latter carrier said in a statement on the cancelation of its Vancouver-Austin, Winnipeg-Las Vegas and Edmonton-Atlanta flights.

Road traffic is not doing much better, even several months into what some initially classified as a temporary dropoff in response to news headlines. A report from Statistics Canada released for the month of April shows that border crossings by road fell by 35% from 2024.

The 582,700 Canadians who came into the country from the U.S. by plane also represent a 20% decrease from last year, although road traffic took the bigger hit. In March and February, return border crossings dropped off by a respective 32% and 23% for car crossings and 14% and 2.4% for air travel.

"Although Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries increased [by] 1.3 million, return trips by air from the United States continued to decline in April 2025," the Statistics Canada report reads.

Travel to the U.S. from Canada continued to decline into the spring.
Image source: Shutterstock

Trump continues to deny that travel numbers are down

Even with multiple separate reports showing that travel both from Canada and many other countries is down, President Trump has continued to deny them by calling the traveler dropoff "not a big deal" and telling reporters that "tourism is way up."

"Tourism is doing very well," Trump said in an April 29 interview after ABC reporter Terry Moran showed him the declining numbers. "We're doing very well. Wait [un]til you see the real numbers come out six months from now."

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At an earlier press conference, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt also dismissed any concerns about lost jobs or tourist dollars by calling the U.S. "a much safer country than four years ago under the previous president."

A February report from the U.S. Travel Association estimated that a 10% reduction in Canadian travel would cost the U.S. travel industry at least $2.1 billion and 140,000 lost jobs. As the border crossing numbers now show, the decrease in visitors is actually much higher.

In response, hotels in several liberal states have started trying to distance themselves from White House policies by specifically marketing and offering discounts to Canadians.

“This spring, the hotel is leaning into its independent spirit by launching the Tariff-Free Room Package, offering 20% off stays for all Canadian guests," Campfire Hotel in Oregon's Cascade Range said in a recent message to Canadian travelers.