Canadian travel to the United States has fallen by more than 30%, and the drop is showing up in border crossings, museum attendance and city tourism counts from coast to coast. New York City alone saw Canadian visitor numbers fall from about 983,000 in 2024 to 800,000 in 2025, while Washington State reported a 26% decline in southbound border crossings in October 2025 compared with the same month a year earlier.
The numbers matter because Canadians are the largest group of international tourists to the US, and the pullback is hitting places that long counted on that traffic. In Seattle, Scott Stulen said there has been a 50% drop in Canadians visiting the Emerald City. Oregon said it had 21% fewer visitors from Canada in 2025 than the previous year, and Visit Detroit said visitation from Canada was down about 30% in 2025.
The decline did not begin overnight. Travel from Canada last showed growth in November 2024 before falling by more than 25% after that, and some attractions have been feeling the change for months. The Buffalo AKG Art Museum has welcomed far fewer visitors from Canada since the beginning of last year, a shift that matters in border cities where Canadian day-trippers and weekend travelers have long been part of the visitor base.
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At the museum, Greg Norstrom said staff try to gauge where guests are coming from. “Whenever someone comes to the front desk, we ask for their zip code,” he said. “If they’re not from the US, we ask where they come from.” At another border-heavy destination, Marcie Parker Griswold said, “Approximately half the number of Canadians came through in 2025 than the year before.”
The pressure on Canadian travel comes against a broader backdrop of friction in the relationship. Trump has called Canada irrelevant, has pushed higher tariffs on Canadian lumber, steel and automotive parts, and has dismissed the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement as irrelevant. Higher entrance fees at National Parks for non-residents, increased tourist visa costs and the possibility of social-media checks at border control have also discouraged visitors from around the world. For US tourism markets that grew used to a steady Canadian stream, the bigger question now is how much of that traffic comes back.
