Canadian travel to U.S. went up in October, data shows

Even before the U.S. midterm elections saw Democrats sweep both houses of Congress, travel by Canadians to the U.S. was going up in October, data from Statistics Canada shows.

Canadian travel south of border had been steadily declining since U.S. President Donald Trump launched his trade war against Canada, with many vowing to buy Canadian and travel in Canada instead of going to the U.S.

In 2025, return trips by Canadians from the U.S. were down 25.4 per cent compared to 2024.

However, that trend appears to be reversing slightly.

In October, Canadians took 1.9 million trips to the United States by automobile and air, up three per cent from the same month in 2025. Return trips by road were up 2.2 per cent in the same period, with air travel going up 5.6 per cent.

While this marked the seventh consecutive month of increasing travel to the U.S., road travel was still down 29 per cent compared to 2024 while air travel was down 19 per cent.

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Canadians also took more trips overseas, with one million overseas return trips by air in October 2026, up 0.5 per cent compared to October 2025.

Thanksgiving Monday, Oct. 12, was the busiest travel day, with 172,900 return trips from abroad by Canadian residents.

October also saw more Americans travel to Canada compared to the same period in 2025, with 1.5 million trips marking an increase of 8.1 per cent compared to October 2025.

Of these, 1.1 million trips (8.7 per cent increase) were by automobile and 414,400 trips were by air (6.5 per cent increase).

Friday, Oct. 9, the day before the Columbus Day long weekend in the U.S., saw the highest single day count of Americans visiting Canada at 102,100.

Travel by Canadians to the U.S. bottomed out in July 2025, with border crossing volumes nearly one-third below those reported in July 2024. Since 1972, when digital recordkeeping began for border crossings, year-over-year decline of more than 30 per cent was recorded for only other occasion.

It was for September 2001, following the Sept. 11 attacks in New York City.