Canadian travel to US falls 25% amid Trump tariffs, '51st state' remarks

A new report has revealed that travel by Canadians to the United States declined by 25% in 2025, as escalating trade tensions, new US tariffs, and President Donald Trump’s repeated remarks about Canada becoming the “51st state” coincided with a significant shift in Canadian travel patterns.

According to new data released by Statistics Canada on Tuesday, Canadians made 29.1 million trips to the United States in 2025, down from 39 million the previous year.

Spending by Canadian travelers in the United States also fell by C$3.3 billion (US$2.3 billion), the report showed, while expenditures on overseas travel increased by C$3.6 billion, reflecting a broader change in vacation preferences.

Statistics Canada analysts Laura Presley and Carter McCormick said Canadian travel sentiment changed markedly following the return of the Trump administration in early 2025.

"Following the change in the US administration in early 2025 and the implementation of America First policies, Canadian travel sentiment shifted abruptly," the analysts wrote, adding that survey data from early 2026 suggested the trend had continued, indicating a sustained move away from the United States as a preferred travel destination.

The decline came amid renewed trade disputes between the two countries. Since returning to office, Trump has imposed additional tariffs on a range of Canadian products, including automobiles, alcohol, dairy products, and other goods.

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He has also declined to extend the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement negotiated during his first term and has repeatedly suggested that Canada should become the "51st state," comments echoed by US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra.

According to the report, the decline in US travel was largely offset by increased domestic and international tourism.

Canadians took approximately 5 million additional trips within Canada and 1.3 million more overseas trips during 2025. Travel to Asia increased by 16.7%, while trips to Europe rose 13.6% compared with the previous year.

Statistics Canada further noted that the decline represented the sharpest sustained drop in Canadian travel to the United States in more than five decades outside exceptional events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Despite the decline, the United States remained Canada's leading international travel destination, accounting for about two-thirds of all foreign trips by Canadian residents in 2025, down from approximately three-quarters the previous year.

Statistics Canada noted that preliminary data for April through June 2026 suggest the decline in Canadian travel to the United States may be beginning to moderate, driven primarily by an increase in automobile travel, although air travel continues to remain below previous levels.

The report said upcoming US tourism data would provide a clearer picture of whether increased arrivals from other countries offset part of the decline in Canadian visitors.

Relations between Ottawa and Washington have deteriorated sharply since Trump took office, with US tariffs on Canadian goods and Trump's repeated suggestions that Canada should become the 51st US state straining ties to a breaking point.

In June, Trump announced that he will not renew the CUSMA trade pact with Canada and Mexico ahead of a July 1 milestone, saying, “We don’t need anything that Canada has, we don’t need anything that Mexico has.”

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