Canadians’ reluctance to visit the U.S. over the past 18 months turned a bit in April, with the number of cross-border trips ticking up for the first time since January 2025, Statistics Canada says.
In a new report, the national statistical agency noted that the number of Canadians returning from trips to the U.S. in April rose by 1.8% compared with the same month a year ago, to 2.4 million.
Drives across the border led the rise, increasing by 8.1% to 1.5 million. Almost two-thirds (65.0%) of these journeys were same-day trips, Statistics Canada said.
At the same time, the volume of flights from the U.S. was down by 7.1% in the month.
While April marked the first year-over-year increase in trips to the U.S. since cross-border travel began tanking in January 2025, amid rising trade and geopolitical tensions, the volume of travel activity is still down by 26.7% from April 2024 — with car trips down by 30.2% and flights off by 16.9% — Statistics Canada reported.
At the same time, the number of Americans that visited Canada was up by 6.9% in April, compared with the same month last year. Although, the volume of visits by Americans also remains down slightly, by 1.5%, from April 2024.
The increase is Canadians travelling to the U.S. also boosted travel overall, offsetting a 0.9% decline in overseas trips in April — resulting in an overall 0.9% increase in Canadians travelling during the month.