Tourism Statistics in Canada

Many industries were hit hard by the global COVID pandemic, but the hardest hit industry was the tourism industry. The ban on travel directly affected all its subcategories, including airlines, cruise lines, accommodation services, tourist attractions, and food services.

It also had an indirect impact on other industries such as retail when visiting shoppers didn’t bring in extra revenue. Some areas, such as the South Shore area in Nova Scotia, were hit harder than others because many local businesses rely on the revenue brought in by tourists.

In this article, we have collected data on how the pandemic affected the tourist industry and how it has been recovering in the recent years.

Tourism Statistics for Canadians

• Tourism’s share of Canada’s GDP was 1.74% in Q1 2025, up 0.5% from the previous quarter.
• Tourism employment continues to recover, with over 715,000 jobs by the third quarter of  2025.
• Canadians accounted for the majority of tourism expenditure in 2024–2025.
• International tourism arrivals have increased steadily, with 575,100 overseas tourists in Canada in May 2025.
• US-resident arrivals to Canada totalled about 439,800 in May 2025.
• Canadians made around 2.3 million trips to the United States and 3.3 million total trips abroad in May 2025.
• Automobile trips from the United States by Canadians were around 1,044,700 in May 2025.
• 44% of Canadians feel confident welcoming tourists from overseas to their area, while 70% are happy to welcome tourists from other parts of Canada.
• 84% of Canadians believe tourism is important to the Canadian economy.

Before the Pandemic

In 2019, before COVID forced countries around the world to close their borders, Canada recorded a total of 32 million tourists, the ninth-highest number in the world. However, when looking at the number of tourists in relation to the population, Canada is 49th in the world with 0.85 tourists per resident. It ranked number one in North America.

Toronto and Vancouver were the most popular destinations in Canada among international travellers. In 2019, Toronto ranked 53rd and Vancouver 68th among the world’s most popular cities with 4.74 million and 3.4 million tourists respectively.

In 2019, there were 2.1 million jobs in the tourism-dependent industries and there were 232,000 tourism establishments.

During the Pandemic

Initially, in the first quarter of 2020, only 187,000 jobs were lost in the industry, but as the pandemic forced the borders to stay closed for much longer than initially thought, the second quarter of 2020 saw 581,000 jobs lost. By the end of 2020, there were 1.6 million jobs in the tourism-dependent industries.

The number of active tourism businesses fell by 9.9% in December 2020 compared to January 2020. This was over three times the overall contraction of the Canadian economy, which was 3.1% during the same period.

The aviation industry was one of the hardest hit, with the revenues from April to December 2020 declined by 89.9%. In the same period, accommodation revenues from hotel stays fell by 71.2%. Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver recorded the lowest occupancies in Canada and saw the biggest revenue drop at 90.8% representing a loss of $2.3 billion across the three cities.

Post Pandemic

In the first quarter of 2022, tourism’s share of the gross domestic product in Canada was 1.3% of the total. The gross domestic product from tourism was up by 0.9% and it was the fourth consecutive quarterly increase. Tourism spending increased by 50.7% in the last four quarters, but in the first quarter of 2022, it was still 34.2% below the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Since 2022, the tourism sector has continued to recover, with domestic and international travel rising steadily, and overall tourism demand surpassing pre-pandemic levels by 2024.

The growth in the first quarter was largely due to an increase in tourism spending by Canadians during domestic trips. This was up 0.8% compared to the final quarter of 2024. In the first quarter of 2025, tourism spending by international tourists was down 2.6% compared to the final quarter of 2024. However, there had been a large increase in the number of overnight visitors from the United States and overseas in the final quarter of 2024, especially during the Christmas holidays.

The tourism sector has been steadily adding back over half a million jobs and the number of jobs in the tourist industry went up by a further 0.1% in the first quarter of 2025. However, the industry has struggled to fill these jobs and there were still many positions unfilled by the end of the quarter.

A closer look at tourism spending increases

GDP: The GDP from tourism increased by 11.9% in the final quarter of 2021. It was followed by a more modest increase of 0.9% in the first quarter of 2022. The biggest contribution to the tourism GDP came from the transportation services at 2.9%. In 2024, tourism contributed $50.8 billion to Canada’s GDP (about 1.8% of overall GDP), and in the first three quarters of 2025 tourism GDP continued to grow, supported by gains in accommodation and transportation sectors.

Employment: The number of jobs attributed to tourism has been steadily rising since travel restrictions were relaxed. The number of jobs rose by 4.8% in the fourth quarter of 2021 and by a further 0.8% in the first quarter of 2022. Travel services were the largest contributor with a 10.2% increase followed by transportation services (2.6%). By 2024, tourism supported over 702,700 jobs across Canada, and employment continued to edge up in 2025 with more than 715,000 jobs attributable to tourism by the third quarter.

Domestic Tourism Spending: The amount Canadians spend on travel increased by 2.9% in the first quarter of 2022. The main contributors towards the increase were passenger air transport, and pre-trip expenses such as camping equipment, recreational vehicles and crafts and activities equipment. Spending by Canadians was 85.8% of the total tourism spending in the first quarter of 2022. Domestic tourism spending continued to be the dominant component of total tourism expenditure in 2024 and 2025, with overnight domestic trips reaching record levels and domestic travel outpacing international tourism in overall spending.

International Tourism Spending: Spending by international tourists was up by 116.4% in the last quarter of 2021. However, it fell by 6.9% in the first quarter of 2022. The biggest contributor to the decline in the first quarter of 2022 was passenger air transport at 11.4% followed by accommodation services at 4.8%. In 2024 international visitor spending grew year‑over‑year and inbound overnight arrivals also rose, and in 2025 tourism spending by non‑residents showed small quarterly increases, though it remained below some pre‑pandemic metrics for overall share of tourism revenue.

Tourism Statistics for May 2025

In May 2022, the number of international tourists in Canada continued to rise but was still not at the pre‑pandemic levels of 2019. There were almost twelve times as many trips to Canada from overseas countries in May 2022 compared to May 2021. It was still less than half of the trips in May 2019. There were 315,400 overseas tourists in Canada in May 2022. In May 2025, there were approximately 575,100 overseas residents arriving in Canada, down 6.6% from May 2024, though travel remains well above the pandemic lows.

There were almost ten times more trips to Canada made by residents of the United States in May 2022 compared to the year before. The number of visits by US residents in May 2022 was over 1.1 million compared to May 2021 when there were 113,500 trips made by US residents. Even though the figures showed huge improvement, they were still short of the visitor numbers in May 2019 when there were 2.1 million trips to Canada from the United States. In May 2025, non‑resident arrivals by air totalled about 894,200, including around 439,800 trips by US residents, and total international arrivals (by air and automobile) were about 4.8 million, down year‑over‑year.

Out of the American arrivals recorded in May 2022, 692,000 were by automobile and 43.7% of the trips were day trips. In May 2021, there were 105,000 trips by automobiles and 1.4 million in May 2019. In May 2025, US‑resident trips to Canada by automobile were around 1,044,700, with notable declines compared to the previous year, while automobile data show changing patterns of same‑day and overnight trips.

Visitor numbers from major markets in Europe and Asia continued to grow. In May 2021, there were 7,100 European visitors to Canada compared to 164,000 in May 2022. Trips to Canada from Asia went up from 8,500 to 72,700 during the same period. In May 2025, arrivals from both Europe and Asia declined compared with May 2024, with fewer visitors from these regions contributing to the overall year‑over‑year drop in overseas arrivals.

Canadians travelling abroad

At the same time as travel to Canada increased again, Canadians started to travel more to the United States and overseas. In May 2022, there were 2.2 million trips to the United States by Canadian residents. In May 2021 there were 311,800 trips to the United States by Canadian residents, so the number of trips a year later was around seven times higher. In May 2025, Canadian residents returning from the United States totalled about 2.3 million, down around 31.9 % compared with May 2024, and the total number of Canadian residents returning from all trips abroad (U.S. and overseas) was about 3.3 million.

The majority of the trips, 1.6 million were by automobile and 58.5% of all trips were one‑day trips. The number of Canadians travelling to the United States by air in May 2022 edged closer to the pre‑pandemic levels. The 593,200 flights to the United States in May 2022 represented 73.6% of the trips recorded in May 2019. In contrast, only 28,200 Canadians were flying to the United States in May 2021. By May 2025, return trips by automobile from the United States had declined by over 37 % compared with May 2024, and Canadian‑resident return trips by air from the United States were also lower than the previous year.

The number of Canadians who resumed overseas travel has risen sharply from May 2021 until May 2022. In the previous May, there were only 51,400 overseas trips made by Canadians compared to 652,400 this May. The flights taken in May 2022 represent 67.2% of the flights taken in May 2019 and it was the highest monthly recovery so far. In May 2025, return trips by Canadian residents from overseas increased compared with May 2024, continuing a trend where growth in overseas travel partly offset the declines in travel to the United States.

Canadian views on travel and tourism

Since the return to a more normal life, Canadians are readier to welcome both Canadian and international visitors. 70% of Canadians welcome visitors from other parts of Canada, 48% are happy to welcome visitors from the United States and 44% felt happy to receive tourists from overseas.

In a survey on the importance of tourism to the Canadian economy, 84% of Canadians believe it is important. 82% said they believe Canadians travelling domestically is important for the economy, while 79% of the people responding to the survey said overseas tourists are important to the economy.

The travel industry is expected to reach its pre-pandemic levels by 2024 or by 2025 at the latest. While more people’s confidence in the safety of travel is returning to pre-pandemic levels, the growth can be slowed down by geopolitical events such as the war in Ukraine.

Conclusions

The global pandemic hit the tourist industry the hardest, and it has been slower to recover from the pandemic than other industries. However, as the confidence to travel continues to grow, the numbers have been increasing and are slowly getting closer to pre-pandemic levels.

Foreign tourism from France and Mexico has been quickest to recover, though still lacking behind pre-pandemic levels. The number of arrivals from Asian countries such as China, Japan and South Korea has been slow to pick up again.

Most Canadians see the tourist industry as important for the Canadian economy and the number of Canadians who feel happy to welcome tourists into their towns and cities is steadily increasing.