TORONTO —Statistics Canada has released its cross-border travel data for June 2026.
The increase in overall return trips from the U.S. in June 2026 marked both the third consecutive month of year-over-year increases, and the third increase since December 2024.
Canadian-resident return trips by air from the U.S. were down, by 3.8%. But return trips by car were up, by 5.2%, for a 3.2% YOY increase in overall Canadian resident return trips from the U.S. in May 2026, for a total of 1.7 million.
Since we’re now more than a year into the cross-border Canada-to-U.S. declines, the year-over-year differentials are narrowing amid the ‘new normal.’ When comparing the number of trips in June 2026 with pre-‘elbows up’ in June 2024, however, there’s a 29% decline, fuelled by the drop in car trips (down 29.6% in June 2026 vs. June 2024) and air (down 25% in June 2026 vs. June 2024).
Year over year Canadian-resident return trips from overseas countries showed a slight decrease, by 0.4% compared to June 2025, for a total of 873,200.
StatCan’s June data also clocked the influx of inbound tourism into Canada for last month’s FIFA 2026 World Cup matches in Vancouver and Toronto. Air arrivals from the 15 countries with teams playing in Canada in June bumped up 32.5%.