Data shows the volume of transborder trips down by 8.1% compared to 2024, while overseas activity was up 3.4% over last year

According to the Conference Board of Canada’s (CBoC) March Outbound Canada report, close to 2.75 million Canadians returned from an overnight outbound trip in January 2025. 

That level of activity was similar to 2019 (-0.8%), however, it marked a 2.8% decline compared to January 2024. 

As for the volume of transborder trips, those were down by 8.1% compared to 2024, while overseas activity was up 3.4% over last year. 

Turning to the first half of the 2024-25 winter travel season (Nov-Jan), the Conference Board reported that 4.35 million Canadians returned home from an overnight trip to the U.S. –  a 1.7% decrease compared to last winter. 

On the other hand, the first three months of the season saw 3.36 million overseas trips, a 9.7% increase compared to winter 2023-24.

Looking specifically at the United States, the Conference Board reported: 

• A little more than 1.4 million Canadians returned home from an overnight transborder trip in January 2025, an 8.1% drop compared to 2024. 
• Transborder trips by air reached 826,000, compared to 898,000 last year (-7.9%). Canadians also made 562,000 trips by auto, a smaller volume than recorded a year ago (-8.4%). 
• The first half of the 2024-25 winter travel season (Nov-Jan) saw 4.35 million Canadians return home from an overnight transborder trip, compared to 4.42 million last winter (-1.7%). 
• Forty-two per cent of the activity recorded during the period were trips by auto compared to 46% pre-pandemic.

Turning to Europe and the United Kingdom, the Conference Board reported that: 

• More than 265,000 Canadian arrivals were recorded in Europe and the UK in January 2025, a larger volume than reported in both 2019 (12.4%) and 2024 (3.8%). 
• The first half of the 2024-25 winter travel season (Nov-Jan) saw 934,000 arrivals in European destinations, 3.4% more activity than last winter, and 14.5% more activity than in 2018-19.

On the question of consumer confidence, the Conference Board noted that “geoeconomic uncertainty has seeped into consumer sentiment,” before pointing out that The Index of Consumer Confidence fell to its lowest level ever, dropping to 44.2 points in March. For comparison, the index was 47.6 in April 2019 after the pandemic was declared. 

The CBoC’s March Outbound Canada report also said that compared to the start of the year, a larger share of Canadian consumers reported that they are worse off financially than six months ago (+4.21 points), while an even larger share (+7.89 points) feel that their financial situation will be worse six months from now. 

And it noted further that a much larger share feels there will be fewer jobs in their community in six months (+17.57 points) than reported in January.

For more on the Conference Board’s March Outbound Canada report, go to www.conferenceboard.ca.