Travel boycott by Canada slams US economy

Last year was bad and Canadians aren’t letting up in 2026

The Canadian boycott of travel to the United States has seen millions of people cancel or avoid travel trips to America since Donald Trump returned to office. However, recent data revealed that Americans are increasingly coming back to Canada.

A boycott in response to Trump

Canadians began boycotting travel to the United States as a way to protest against the economic attacks and sovereignty threats that Trump began levying against their nation after he returned to the White House in January 2026. 

Tariff attacks and 51st state slights

President Trump’s tariff assaults and ‘51st state’ slights upset enough Canadians that 2025 turned out to be a rough year for the American travel and tourism industry, since Canadians are one of the main sources of foreign visitors to the US. 

Tens of millions visited the US in 2024

In 2024, Canadian trips to the United States totaled 39 million, which Statistics Canada noted represented roughly 75% of all Canadian travel abroad that year. 

The boycott has had an effect

However, since the return of President Trump and the cross-border tensions that have followed, Canadian travel to the United States has seen huge year-over-year declines. 

Travel was down over 25% in 2025

According to data from Statistics Canada, Canadian trips to the United States fell by a whopping 25.4% to just 29.1 million in 2025. The boycott has stayed strong into 2026. The latest preliminary data shows that travel is still down. 

What the latest data revealed

On March 10th, Statistics Canada published its early data for February 2026 and noted that Canadian resident returns from the United States sat at 1.5 million. This was down by 14.5% from the same period last year, which was when the boycott began. 

The 14th month of annual declines

 “February marked the 14th straight month of annual declines in the total number of Canadians returning from the US," Bloomberg reported about the new data. 

Major year-over-year declines

Statistics Canada noted in its report that the reduction in travel from February 2024 into the following two years has seen major year-over-year declines as a result of tensions with the United States. 

Comparing three years of data

“When comparing the February 2026 figure with that of February 2024, before the start of trade tensions with the United States in early 2025, a sharper decline (-31.5%) was observed,” Statistics Canada explained in its report. 

February 2026 versus February 2025

“In February 2026, both return trips by automobile (-12.9%) and by air (-17.6%) declined from February 2025,” Statistics Canada continued. However, while travel to the US was falling, Canadian trips to other countries were on the rise. 

Canadians are still traveling abroad

February 2026 was another good example of how Canadian travel habits have changed recently. The month saw Canadian resident returns from places other than the US jump by 7.2% to 1.3 million. 

A stunning finding

Statistics Canada noted in its report that more Canadians traveled abroad in February and returned by air than Canadians who traveled to the United States and returned by either air or by automobile.  

Canadians have no interest in US travel

Bloomberg suggested that the latest data suggested that “Canadians are not warming up to the idea of resuming travel down south.” However, Statistics Canada also found that Americans have begun returning to Canada. 

Americans are coming back to Canada

US resident trips to Canada were up by 6.1% in February 2026 year-over-year. They reached 959,600, which Statistics Canada reported marked “the first increase after 12 consecutive months of year-over-year declines.”

What the data showed about US travel

Most trips were made by automobile, with 720,400 Americans driving across the border for a year-over-year increase of 6.4%. Another 239,200 flew into Canada, which was a more modest 4.9% increase, according to the data. 

Has America been hurt by the boycott?

In February 2025, the US Travel Association warned that the loss of 10% of Canadian travelers to the United States could cost the United States $2.1 billion in lost spending and 140,000 lost jobs. However, the drop was more than double that figure.