Record-Breaking Summer for Canadian Tourism

The summer of 2025 was a record-breaker for Canada, with tourism revenue from May to August reaching nearly $60 billion; a 6% increase over the previous year and a surge that delivered economic benefits from coast to coast.

Breaking it down – $44.4B came from Canadian travellers and $14.6B came from the international traveller market which saw a 10% increase over 2024. International visitors are also spending more per trip, resulting in higher yield this summer.

Destination Canada says the record revenue was driven by a strong base of Canadians who chose to explore our country like never before with the highest domestic growth coming from Canadians travelling outside of their home province.

An impressive 89% of regions posted year-over-year gains, with 59% outperforming Canada’s major metro areas — clear evidence that tourism benefits are being felt well beyond the big cities.

Atlantic Canada stood out as a top performer, recording some of the strongest growth rates nationwide and attracting increasing numbers of overseas travellers.

Domestic tourism was also a major driver, with Canadians spending 7% more on travel within the country compared to last year. Interestingly, inter-provincial travel rose faster than intra-provincial trips, reflecting a growing curiosity among Canadians to explore new parts of their own country.

The accommodation sector mirrored this strength, with national hotel occupancy reaching 80.7% in August — the highest level since 2014. Both hotels and short-term rentals saw occupancy growth despite expanded supply.

Hotel RevPAR climbed 6.6% over the summer, while rural and smaller markets such as Manitoba, Vancouver Island, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick experienced some of the steepest occupancy increases.

The surge is likely driven by a continued decline in travel to the U.S., as more Canadians opt to stay away amid ongoing tariff concerns and geopolitical tensions. Canadians made 2.9 million trips to the US in August 2025, a 29.7% decrease from August 2024.  Travel by car declined by 32.6% in August 2025 compared to a year earlier.  

Canada as a destination is on a roll; earlier this year we were named one of the Top 10 Countries in the World in the 2025 Condé Nast Traveler Readers’ Choice Awards, one of the most respected accolades in global travel.