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Canadian travel to the United States fell sharply in 2025 and remained lower in early 2026, but the evidence does not show that any state has abandoned Canadian tourists. The specific claim naming Montana is unverified. National statistics document a major change in travel patterns; they do not establish that every traveler acted for the same reason or that a state tourism authority stopped welcoming Canadians.
How much did Canadian travel to the United States fall?
Statistics Canada reported that Canadian-resident return border crossings from the United States fell 25.4% in 2025 compared with 2024. That measure counts crossings, not unique tourists: one person may cross more than once. Separately, the agency estimated that U.S.-bound visits fell 23.5%, or 7.1 million visits, over the same period. These are related indicators, not interchangeable counts. Statistics Canada’s February 2026 travel release explains the national trend.
The decline continued into the next year. In the first quarter of 2026, Canadian residents took 5.5 million trips that included a U.S. visit, down 10.6% year over year, and spent $5.0 billion on those trips, down 13.6%, according to Statistics Canada’s Q1 2026 figures. The Bank of Canada separately reported close to 10 million fewer Canadian trips to the United States in 2025 than in 2024, a 25% drop: land trips fell by 8.4 million (30%) and air trips by 1.2 million (12%). Those figures use the Bank’s trip measures and should not be substituted for Statistics Canada’s crossing or visit counts. The Bank’s 2026 analysis gives that breakdown.
Does the data prove Canadians are boycotting U.S. travel?
It proves a substantial reduction in travel, not the motive of each traveler. Statistics Canada places the shift in the context of early-2025 political developments and policy changes, and its authors describe a persistent shift in Canadian residents’ travel preferences. But aggregate travel totals cannot distinguish a political boycott from other individual reasons, such as cost, destination choice, or changed plans. “Boycott” is therefore a useful description of some travelers’ stated choices, not a complete explanation established for every trip that did not happen.
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Where did travel shift instead?
In 2025, domestic visits by Canadians rose 1.5%, or 5.0 million visits, while visits to overseas destinations increased 10.2%, or 1.3 million. The composition matters: U.S.-bound leisure visits fell 21.5%, or 3.2 million, while overseas leisure visits rose 12.2%, or 1.1 million. Family-related visits to the United States declined more slowly than leisure visits, so the drop was not uniform across purposes. These comparisons come from Statistics Canada’s 2025 travel estimates; they show where recorded visits grew or fell, but do not establish that each additional domestic or overseas visit replaced a canceled U.S. trip.
Has a U.S. state abandoned Canadian tourists?
No credible evidence in the available reporting verifies that any state has abandoned Canadian tourists. An exact-title search surfaced a low-quality page associating the assertion with Montana, but it did not substantiate a state policy, tourism-office decision, or business action to turn away or stop courting Canadian visitors. The claim should not be repeated as fact without verifiable evidence.
Other reporting points in the opposite direction: state and local tourism officials have sought to attract Canadians back. The Associated Press reported declines in Canadian visits to Florida and California in 2025, while Axios reported state-level examples using different time periods and measures. Those reports illustrate local impacts and efforts to respond; they do not provide a consistent, comparable ranking of states or establish that one state abandoned Canadian visitors. The Associated Press report and Axios’s state-level coverage describe those developments.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the early-2026 figures can—and cannot—tell you
The first-quarter 2026 numbers show that U.S.-bound travel remained below the year-earlier level. They are not a full-year result, and they do not establish whether the decline continued, narrowed, or reversed later in 2026. Nor do national totals identify a state’s policy or intent. A claim that a particular state has stopped welcoming Canadian tourists would require direct evidence about that state’s actions, not just falling visitor counts.
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