The Canadian boycott of US travel took another disastrous turn

America is suffering because of Trump

Canadians started boycotting travel to the United States shortly after US President Donald Trump returned to the White House. However, after a year back in power, the numbers show that the boycott isn’t letting up.

Trump caused the travel boycott

Trump kicked off the Canadian boycott of travel to the United States after he slapped a massive tariff on Canada a few weeks after returning to office. Canadian rage only intensified after Trump started issuing other threats. 

51st state threat from the President

The US President’s constant rhetoric about his desire to see Canada become the 51st state and his verbal attacks on his northern neighbor intensified the irritation that many felt, further fueling the travel boycott. 

The US lost a quarter of Canadians

Recent figures from Statistics Canada showed that 2025 was a particularly difficult year for the United States when it came to Canadian visitors. Canadian visits to the US were down 25.4% last year to 29.1 million. 

A significant problem for America

Losing just over a quarter of Canadian travel year-over-year is a significant problem for the United States since Canada is the top source of foreign visitors to America. Billions of dollars were lost as a result of the boycott. 

Early warnings about a travel boycott

According to Statistics Canada, Canadian residents took 39.0 million trips to the United States in 2024. A warning from the US Travel Association in February 2025 highlighted the danger of losing Canadian travelers to the US.  

Warning about a Canadian travel boycott

“Canada is the top source of international visitors to the United States, with 20.4 million visits in 2024, generating $20.5 billion in spending and supporting 140,000 American jobs," the US Travel Association explained. 

America could lose billions to a boycott

"A 10% reduction in Canadian travel could mean 2.0 million fewer visits, $2.1 billion in lost spending and 14,000 job losses,” the US Travel Association reported. The loss of Canadians was far higher, and it has only continued. 

The boycott has continued into 2026

On March 23rd, 2026, Statistics Canada released its official data on Canadian travel in the first month of the year. The latest findings painted a grim picture of the crisis facing the United States as the new year kicked off. 

Canadian return trips fell in January 2026

Canadian residents returning from the United States continued to drop in January. The month saw 2.1 million return trips, which was a 22% decrease. This marked the "13th consecutive month of year-over-year decline,” Statistics Canada noted. 

A sharp drop in automobile returns

Return trips to Canada by residents via automobile declined a whopping 26.3% to 1.3 million. Of these return trips, 67.5% were same-day trips, meaning most trips were not long-term visits or vacations in the United States. 

The worst data since the pandemic

“This level exceeded the number of return trips from the United States by automobile (1.3 million) for the first time since the digital Frontier Counts records began in 1972 (excluding the COVID-19 pandemic period),” Statistics Canada explained. 

Air travel returns were also down

Canadian resident return trips by air were also down significantly in January. The data showed that air travel returns declined by 12.8% to 753,400 when compared to January 2025. However, despite the decline, Canadians were still traveling. 

What the official data revealed

The official data revealed that Canadian return trips from overseas were up by 10.6% in January 2026 when compared to the previous year. 1.5 million Canadians returned from abroad from places other than the United States in the first month of the year. 

Americans travel to Canada in January

Shrinking travel to the United States was matched by a small decrease in the number of Americans traveling to Canada. Statistics Canada noted 1.1 million Americans traveled to Canada in January 2026, a decrease of just 0.3% year-over-year. 

An overall increase from 2024 figures

“The number of trips grew notably (+21.0%) from January 2024 to January 2026, driven by increases in trips both by automobile (+23.4%) and by air (+17.2%),” added Statistics Canada about the number of Americans traveling to Canada. 

Preliminary data on Canadian travel in February

Preliminary data on travel from Canada to the United States for February 2026 suggests that return trips also declined that month, year-over-year. Canadian resident return trips from America fell by 14.6%, marking the 14th month of travel declines if the preliminary data proves to be correct. 

Extremely sharp declines were registered

“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. In February 2026, both return trips by automobile (-12.9%) and by air (-17.6%) declined from February 2025,” Statistics Canada reported.