Canadians made fewer trips abroad in May compared to the same time last year, according to new data from Statistics Canada, with the largest drop in travel to the United States.
Canadian residents returned from 3.4 million international trips in May 2025, a decrease of 22.5 per cent from May 2024. This marked the fifth consecutive month of decline. Of those trips, just over half, 53.1 per cent, were by air, down 3.1 per cent from the previous year.
Return trips from the U.S. dropped significantly, falling 31.9 per cent overall. Trips by air from the U.S. decreased by 17.4 per cent, and return trips by automobile declined 37.4 per cent to 1.5 million; over half were same-day trips.
In contrast, Canadian return trips by air from overseas countries increased 9.3 per cent in May 2025 compared to the previous year.
“They've shifted. Most people are shifting towards Europe or Japan or looking at destinations within Canada,” said Terry Hawkins, owner and travel consultant with Terry The Travel Guy. “With everything that went on, we did see a significant drop in not just bookings, but in cancellations and that and people, people want, still wanted to travel, but when you know, when you pivot your plans, it takes, it takes extra time.”
Hawkins added that Canadians seem to be moving away from the U.S. destinations and finding new ones, whereas American travellers have put their plans on hold.
“Which is a difference, knowing a lot of colleagues that work down in the States,” he said. “The U.S. [citizens] are holding back their plans for travel, whereas Canadians are still travelling. It just takes them time to pivot to new destinations.”
Travel agent Jody Strauss, owner of Jody’s Travel Deals, has seen similar trends in her agency.
“Actually, a lot of people are looking into different things. Europe has been huge. A lot of people are somewhere vacationing in Europe,” Strauss said. “There has been a drop, like for myself and throughout our whole agency across Canada, we’ve seen a drop for various reasons. Some people don’t want to go there. Some are afraid. But there’s still people going. I’m actually in the States right now.”
Strauss noted that some U.S. bookings are returning.
“From November till January, there wasn’t a lot of U.S. bookings at all, but now they’ve kind of come back,” she said. “Nashville is popular. People are still cruising, and a lot of cruises leave from the States or even Alaska cruises. People are still going.”
Other St. Albert travellers who spoke to the Gazette are choosing to stay local or explore Canada. Saba Al Hammouri said she tends to stay in the region during the summer, but plans to travel during the fall and winter.
“I tend to stay local during the summers, just because I love it,” she said. “My favourite thing to do is hit up the St. Albert Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. The river valley in Edmonton is really underutilized.”
Al Hammouri said when she's looking to book her next vacation, she is planning on avoiding U.S. destinations.
“I try to get some travelling done, a little bit of destination travel. Right now, I’m trying not to visit the States," Al Hammouri said. "Some of the places on my bucket list are Italy. I’d highly recommend folks check out places within Canada like Montreal, Vancouver, and the Maritimes.”
Haylie Langwald said she and her husband cancelled a cruise through the U.S. and booked a different trip.
“My husband and I are travelling to London to catch a cruise to Norway,” she said.
Typically, they try to travel somewhere every year, she said. So far, she has been on 15 or 16 cruises, all departing from the U.S.
“We had a cruise booked to go to the States, into Panama, but because of everything going on in the States, we cancelled that,” Langwald said. “With our vacation dates already set, I just looked to see what was available, and found that one [different cruise]. I know it's somewhere we've never been before, so it'd be nice.”
Other travellers continue visiting the U.S. regularly. Merle Funk said he and his wife have had positive experiences.
“I don’t think a person wants to put off life because of a government. We’ve always had a good time with them,” he said. “People are good, very good. It’s not about putting off going to the U.S. It’s about enjoying life and leaving politics behind.”
Darlene Funk added that they visit Hawaii annually.
“We go every year in March. Every year we say we’re going to go somewhere else, and every year we go back,” she said. “We feel very safe there and know we’ll get nice weather.”
