TORONTO — Domestic travel may be having a moment in Canada, but for travel advisors on the front lines, that doesn’t necessarily mean more bookings.

Since the pandemic, travelling closer to home has been positioned as a way for Canadians to manage costs, simplify their trips and explore more of their own country. More recently, geopolitical uncertainty, higher travel costs and the continued pullback in U.S.-bound travel have added new reasons to consider a Canadian getaway.

There are plenty of signs that demand exists.

Statistics Canada reported that Canadians made 69.1 million domestic trips in the first quarter of 2026, up 2.3% year over year. That followed particularly strong growth in the second quarter of 2025, when Canadians made 90.6 million domestic visits, up 10.9% from a year earlier and the highest second-quarter total since the National Travel Survey began tracking the data in 2018. 

For 2025 as a whole, Canadians made 342 million domestic visits, up 1.5% from 2024 and 2.5% above 2019 levels. At the same time, Canadian trips that included a visit to the U.S. fell 23.5% from 2024. 

Airlines have been responding with more capacity. Air Canada headed into summer 2026 operating domestic flights to more than 50 destinations across the country, while WestJet expanded its network with new nonstop service linking Calgary with Sault Ste. Marie, North Bay and Campbell River, as well as Terrace with Edmonton. WestJet also boosted frequencies on several domestic routes, including a nearly 50% increase in domestic capacity at Halifax Stanfield International Airport.

Tour operators are seeing movement, too. Intrepid Travel says bookings by Canadians for its trips within Canada are up 10% this year. Earlier this summer, G Adventures also reported domestic travel bookings have increased 207% year over year, prompting the launch of a new trip to Vancouver Island.

But at the retail level, the picture can look very different.

Calgary, Alberta

‘ZERO HAVE REACHED OUT’

Brenda Slater of Beyond the Beach says she is certainly seeing Canadians travel within their own country. What she isn’t seeing is those travellers asking her to arrange it.

“Of the Facebook friends travelling within Canada, exactly zero have reached out to ask for help,” Slater tells Travelweek. “People seem to be more willing to go ‘freestyle’ and book places to stay on the fly.”

Road trips in particular have been showing up frequently among people she knows, she says, something she attributes partly to the comfort Canadians have navigating their own country.

“The trust level and comfort that they’re okay going it alone within our borders is so much higher than if they were going out of country,” she says.

Slater recently spent six weeks travelling from Ontario through Eastern Canada herself and said the do-it-yourself mentality remains strong when it comes to domestic trips.

“With families and friends spread across the country, it’s easy to plan without having to really plan,” says Slater.

That doesn’t mean her clients have stopped travelling. Quite the opposite. Slater says international trips remain strong, even as the U.S. has largely fallen off the list for many of her customers.

“I’m not seeing a higher demand for Canada travel. The U.S. is mostly off the table, but worldwide trips are still going strong,” she says. “The voices are loud about avoiding U.S. travel, but that’s about it.”

INTREPID SEES DOMESTIC GROWTH

Christian Wolters, President – Canada, Intrepid Travel, says the company’s Canadian growth figure needs some context. 

“There are a couple of different things happening here. First, our 26% growth figure reflects bookings from the Canadian market overall. It isn’t a measure of domestic travel alone,” Wolters tells Travelweek. 

He adds that bookings by Canadians travelling with Intrepid within Canada are up 10% this year.

But those gains are not necessarily showing up in the same way across the travel trade, something Wolters attributes in part to how customers book.

“Canadians can book with Intrepid in a number of ways, including directly and through travel advisors, so growth at the operator level won’t necessarily show up evenly across every retail channel,” he says.

What Intrepid is seeing, he adds, is interest in experiencing Canada in ways travellers may once have associated more closely with an international holiday.

“There is growing interest in experiencing Canada differently – not simply travelling closer to home, but looking for the kinds of locally-led, experience-rich trips people might traditionally have associated with travelling internationally,” says Wolters.

Joffres Lakes Park, British Columbia

MAKING DOMESTIC TRAVEL EASIER TO SELL

That gap between domestic demand and advisor bookings is one reason Intrepid sees potential in its recently launched partnership with Air Canada Vacations.

As Travelweek previously reported, eight Intrepid Canadian small-group itineraries are now available through Air Canada Vacations, allowing advisors to combine flights and the land itinerary through the same booking journey.

Wolters says the partnership could help address a long-standing challenge: many Canadians simply assume a trip within their own country is something they should organize themselves.

“Canadians may be accustomed to organizing trips within Canada themselves, so part of the challenge is making a different kind of domestic experience easy to discover and book through the trade,” he says.

Through the partnership, Intrepid manages the itinerary, local expertise and ground logistics, while advisors can bring the broader vacation together for their clients.

“It lowers some of the friction around selling this type of product and, just as importantly, puts small-group travel in front of advisors and travellers who may not previously have considered it for a Canadian vacation,” Wolters says.

A DIFFERENT VALUE PROPOSITION FOR ADVISORS

For travel advisors to capture more domestic business, Wolters believes both product accessibility and consumer perception will need to shift.

“It’s a mix of both. If you want advisors to grow a category, the product has to be easy to find, understand and book. That is an important part of what we are trying to accomplish with Air Canada Vacations,” he says.

But selling Canada through the trade may also require reframing what a domestic trip can look like.

“Domestic travel doesn’t necessarily mean a simple trip. Canada is enormous, and many of its most rewarding experiences involve local knowledge, transportation, activities and logistics that can take considerable time to piece together independently,” Wolters says.

For advisors, Wolters says the value lies in helping clients experience more of a destination rather than simply arranging the basics. 

“That creates an opportunity for advisors to demonstrate value in a different way – not simply by helping someone get from A to B, but by helping them get more out of a destination,” he says. “When advisors have differentiated, experience-rich product to offer, travelling within Canada becomes much more than something a customer automatically has to organize themselves.”

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