Travel between Canada and the U.S. has dropped again.
Return trips by Canadians from the U.S. declined for a fourth consecutive month compared with the year prior, data released by Statistics Canada shows, while travel by Americans coming to Canada is also on the decline.
The data, released Monday, showed the number of Canadians who had returned from the U.S. in April by vehicle totalled 1.2 million, a 35.2 per cent decline from what was seen the same month last year.
The decline was also seen among air travellers, with the agency reporting that those trips fell by 19.9 per cent last month compared with 2024, to a total of 582,737.
April’s drop in Canadian resident return trips by both vehicle and air marks the fourth consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
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Americans are also travelling less to Canada, the data showed.
The number of trips north by U.S. residents by vehicle dropped 10.7 per cent in April, with 820,700 trips, compared with 2024, the third consecutive month of year-over-year declines.
Americans who travelled by air to Canada dropped by 5.5 per cent, with 289,300 people arriving.
The decreases come amid ongoing tensions due to tariffs, U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated rhetoric of making Canada the 51st state and a weakened Canadian dollar.
Monday’s data also comes at a time when U.S. lawmakers are making pushes to try and bring Canadians back to the U.S. due to a plunge in tourists from the north.
This has included a campaign by California Gov. Gavin Newsom and a bipartisan bill in Congress to extend the time Canadian citizens can remain in the country without a visa from 180 to 240 days.
At the same time, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Citizenship and Immigration Services has new regulations to “designate a new registration for aliens to comply with statutory alien registration and fingerprinting provisions.”
Under those rules, which took effect in April, foreign nationals, including Canadians, who plan to stay more than 30 days in the country will have to register with the government if not already registered upon entry. Those who travelled by air will, in most cases, be registered, but those who cross the land border may not see the same registration and will thus have to register themselves.
— with files from The Canadian Press
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