Canadians returning to the country by automobile from the U.S. declined 33.1 percent in June. In 2024, Canadian tourism generated $20.5 billion in spending.
States across America are suffering from a steep decline in Canadian tourism following a tumultuous first half of 2025.
Canadians returning to the country by automobile from the United States declined 33.1% in June, compared to the same time last year, according to Canada’s national statistical agency. And Canadians returning from the U.S. by air dropped 22.1 percent. In fact, the agency said June was the sixth consecutive month of year-over-year automobile declines.
The dip in Canadian tourists follows a turbulent political year that saw President Donald Trump campaign to make the country the “51st state.” In February, then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called for Canadians to not spend their money on vacations in the U.S, instead asking them to “choose Canada” and change their “summer vacation plans to stay here in Canada and explore the many national and provincial parks, historical sites and tourist destinations our great country has to offer,” according to The New York Times.
As of April, advance bookings for flights from Canada to the U.S. between April and September were down more than 70% compared to the same time last year, according to Axios, citing statistics from aviation data firm OAG.
Even just a small dip in tourism could be very costly since Canadian travelers typically account for the highest number of international visitors to the U.S., according to the U.S. Travel Association. In 2024 alone, a total of 20.4 million Canadians visited the country, generating $20.5 billion in spending. A 10 percent reduction in visitor numbers, for example, would equate to a potential loss of $2.1 billion.
Some states will likely suffer more than others—Florida, California, Nevada, New York, and Texas tend to be the most popular states for Canadian visitors—but others have started to feel the crunch as well. In New Hampshire, which borders the eastern part of Canada, officials are seeing a dramatic drop in Canadian tourism.
“Absolutely, the Canadian numbers are lower this year, for sure,” Taylor Caswell, New Hampshire’s commissioner for business and economic affairs, told local WMUR-TV. “They’re running at about 30 percent underneath what we’ve seen in prior years.”
In Montana, credit card transactions have shown the impact of fewer tourists. Spending by Canadians in Kalispell, in the western part of the state, has decreased by an average of about 37 percent per month from January to April, Diane Medler, the executive director of Discover Kalispell, told NBC Montana. In nearby Whitefish, Canadian credit card spending has dropped 25 percent through the month of May, Zak Anderson, the executive director at Explore Whitefish, told the network.
But not everyone is giving up. In September, for example, New Hampshire is planning its own trade delegation visit, WMUR-TV reported. “We’re going to continue to focus on our relationships with Canada, which are quite important,” the state’s Gov. Kelly Ayotte said, according to the network.
