{"id":877031,"date":"2026-08-30T12:52:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:52:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/877031\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T12:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:52:09","slug":"travel-to-canada-up-down-to-u-s-statcan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/877031\/","title":{"rendered":"Travel to Canada up, down to U.S.: StatCan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Canadian travellers pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of the United States in the first part of 2026, according to new data<\/a> released by Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n

The agency\u2019s regular National Travel Survey released Tuesday showed Canadians cut back on trips, average visit length and spending on trips into the United States during the first three months of 2026, when compared to the same period a year prior.<\/p>\n

Canadians made nearly 500,000 fewer trips into America and spent about $800 million less on those trips year over year, according to preliminary numbers gathered by Statistics Canada.<\/p>\n

The spending total accounts for the total costs of the trips made between January and March, which includes money spent in Canada and on airfare for travel.<\/p>\n

The data shows a continued decline in Canadian interest in U.S. travel, even before the latest round of trade tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s nothing I really want to see in the States,\u201d said Patti Page, an Ontario tourist travelling in St. John\u2019s this week. \u201cI\u2019d rather see more of Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we\u2019re just wanting to support Canada and Canadian businesses and Canadian tourism,\u201d said her travel partner Donna Richardson.<\/p>\n

The National Travel Survey suggests that Canadian businesses are benefiting \u2014 spending on internal trips, within the country, increased to $14.5 billion in the first quarter of 2026, up from $13.8 billion in the same period for 2025.<\/p>\n

That data includes business and leisure travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow, I\u2019m just travelling Canada,\u201d said Micheline Charette, a Quebec resident visiting Newfoundland and Labrador on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI go to the Rockies, I go everywhere, Halifax, I\u2019m travelling everywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been an increase in in-country visits overall, which have benefited tourism operators in Newfoundland and Labrador and helped those business weather other high costs \u2014 like jumps in the cost of diesel and gasoline.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore trips, which does help on the other side of the scale of things to balance it out,\u201d said Luke Gatherall, who helps run the Gatherall\u2019s boat tour company on Newfoundland\u2019s Southern Shore.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this year was a great year, things were really busy,\u201d said Craig Foley, the CEO of Hospitality Newfoundland and Labrador. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard that the season started very early. We\u2019ve also\u2026made a concerted effort around extending the shoulder season [as] we call it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are also signs that despite Canadians turning away from their southern border, American visitors are still interested in crossing into Canada.<\/p>\n

The National Travel Survey shows American visitors spent nearly $3 billion on visits to Canada between January and March 2026, an increase of about $500 million from the same period the year prior.<\/p>\n

Some Canadian tourists say they\u2019ve soured on U.S. travel long-term, and are unlikely to return so long as U.S. President Donald Trump remains in office.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not an age question, I\u2019m fit,\u201d said Charette, \u201cIt\u2019s just Canada has so much to offer.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Canadian travellers pulled hundreds of millions of dollars out of the United States in the first part of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":877032,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[712,45,49,48,46],"class_list":["post-877031","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-apple-news","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=877031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/877031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/877032"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=877031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=877031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=877031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}