Canadians continue to ditch U.S travel and are flocking to these 3 domestic cities instead

Aerial view of Halifax, Nova Scotia. The city's Stanfield International Airport saw a 15 per cent increase in passenger numbers year-over-year in March 2026. Photo by Mario Hagen/stock.adobe.com

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New data from Statistics Canada has revealed that cross-border travel from Canada to the U.S. is down for the 14th consecutive month, while domestic travel has surged.

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The data tracks passenger numbers at Canada’s eight largest airports and shows that traffic to the U.S. declined by 7 per cent from March 2025 to March 2026, falling to 1.2 million screened passengers.

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The downturn, which began in January 2025, has been linked to political tensions between Canada and the U.S., fuelled by punishing tariffs imposed by Donald Trump and his suggestion that Canada could become the 51st state.

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And it’s not just Canadians turning their backs on U.S. travel. A release published by the World Travel and Tourism Council in May 2025 estimated that, of the 184 economies analyzed, the U.S was the only country forecast to see international visitor spending decline that year.

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Meanwhile, the number of domestic passengers at Canadian airports rose sharply, up 10 per cent from March 2025.

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All eight of Canada’s largest airports saw annual increases in passenger numbers in March 2026. The three with the strongest gains were Halifax/Robert L. Stanfield International (+15 per cent), Toronto/Lester B. Pearson International (+14.1 per cent), and Calgary International (+11.3 per cent).

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This trend is echoed in data gathered by travel companies elsewhere. A recent report from Airbnb found that “Canadians chose to explore their own country in record numbers in 2025, with over 9.5 million domestic guest arrivals, accounting for over 60 per cent of all trips on Airbnb — up more than 50 per cent since 2019.”

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The report also noted that Canadians prefer to travel within their own province. 70 per cent of domestic trips by Ontarians took place within Ontario, as were 70 per cent for British Columbians, 62 per cent for Quebecers, and 51 per cent for Albertans.

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Airbnb estimates that all travel in Canada generated a record of nearly $10.9 billion in economic activity in 2025. By contrast, the drop in Canadian visitors helped drive a 4.6 per cent drop in international tourism spending in the U.S. last year, according to research by the World Travel and Tourism Council, despite 2025 being a record year globally for the travel and tourism sector in terms of GDP growth.

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However, the U.S. remains the largest travel and tourism market in the world. And with 1.2 million crossing the border from Canada to the U.S. in March alone, the market is far from disappearing.