If you thought Canadians were travelling in record numbers, you’re right.
Statistics Canada says Canadian residents flew home from 1.6 million trips abroad in September of this year. That’s 10.4% more flights back to Canada than last year, and almost 4% higher than the number of returning Canadian passengers in September of 2019.
Canadian residents returning by automobile from a visit to the United States increased by 8.2% year over year to 2.4 million in September. That’s 87.8% of the number of car trips taken to the States in September 2019.
Inbound tourism still isn’t back to pre-pandemic levels, however. Stats Can said 683,700 overseas residents arrived in Canada in September. That’s up 0.2% from the same month in 2023, but only 80.5% of the level recorded in September 2019.
Together, the top three countries of residence of overseas visitors—the United Kingdom (112,400), France (71,500), and Germany (51,700)—represented 34.5% of all overseas arrivals in Canada in September.
The overall number of arrivals in Canada by US residents in September was up 2.3% from August.
Arrivals by residents of Europe, the largest overseas market for inbound tourism, decreased 0.2% from August to September. Arrivals by residents of Asia decreased 4.3% from August to September.