U.S. tariffs and heated rhetoric didn’t actually scare everyone away. Not quite.
A new federal report confirms as much. Sixteen million Canadians still made the trip last year.
That number is down twenty-one percent from 2023. Mostly because people stopped driving over the border. Land arrivals tanked by thirty percent. Air travel? Only dropped eleven percent. It was a sharp enough decline to push Canada off the top spot. Mexico took No. 1 with nearly eighteen million arrivals.
But wait.
Look at who stayed. The government just released new data on land crossings. It tells a specific story about resilience. Or stubbornness.
More Canadians are crossing for things they have to do. Visiting family. Running business. The percentage of trips for family units, solo business travelers, or associates went up relative to the total.
Who stayed home? Vacationers. People dragging their tour groups across. Friends traveling in packs. They thinned out.
Why?
Because leisure is optional. Obligations aren’t.
Family and business ties are harder to cut than vacation plans.
The boycott worked for leisure. It didn’t touch the rest. Not completely. The border remains porous to those with reasons beyond relaxation.
Who knows if that holds next year. Tariffs shift. Moods shift. People cross when they can. Or when they must.
It’s rarely a clean break.
