Alberta has become the latest Canadian province to report record-breaking tourism results, underscoring a broader national shift as millions of Canadians scale back travel to the United States and redirect their vacation dollars to destinations at home and overseas.
Alberta’s Tourism Numbers Hit Historic Highs
Alberta’s tourism sector is riding a historic wave. The province recorded about 38.1 million visits in 2024, generating an estimated 14.4 billion dollars in revenue and supporting roughly 260,000 jobs, according to recent provincial tourism data. Industry officials say that level of activity marks the strongest year on record for Alberta’s visitor economy, with demand now surpassing pre-pandemic levels and broadening well beyond its traditional peak-summer mountain season.
Domestic travel has been a major driver. Visits to the Alberta Rockies alone reached approximately 5.5 million in 2024, one of the highest tallies ever recorded for the region and only slightly below its all-time peak. Hot spots such as Banff and Jasper national parks, the Badlands, and city-based events in Calgary and Edmonton are reporting sold-out summers and improving shoulder-season performance as Canadians opt for familiar landscapes and perceived stability at home.
Alberta’s government has set an ambitious goal of reaching 25 billion dollars in visitor spending by 2035, nearly doubling current results. Investment is flowing into hotel developments, Indigenous-led cultural experiences, and attractions that can sustain year-round visitation. Stakeholders say the timing is fortuitous: as Canadian outbound travel patterns change sharply, Alberta is better positioned than at any point in the past decade to capture that demand.
Prairie Provinces See Record Spending and Rising Profiles
Neighboring prairie provinces are reporting similar momentum. Manitoba announced last November that visitor spending hit 1.89 billion dollars in 2024, the third consecutive record year for tourism revenue and driven by 10.6 million visitors. That follows another record in 2023, underlining how the province has quietly built a four-season tourism offering around culture, nature, and urban experiences in Winnipeg and beyond.
From polar-bear viewing around Churchill to northern lights tourism and a burgeoning culinary and arts scene in the capital, Manitoba’s growth is increasingly tied to Canadians who might once have flown over the province en route to U.S. cities. Local tourism authorities say they are seeing longer average stays and higher per-trip spending, particularly among visitors from Ontario and Quebec who are choosing domestic itineraries in response to border tensions to the south.
Saskatchewan is also leaning into the trend. While its visitor numbers have historically lagged larger provinces, industry groups report strong post-pandemic gains in camping, fishing, and road-trip tourism as Canadians seek quieter, wide-open destinations. Provincial marketers are rebranding the prairie experience around dark skies, lakes, and ranch culture, targeting travelers who previously might have opted for national parks or desert getaways in the American Southwest.
Western Gateways Capitalize on Domestic and International Demand
On the Pacific coast, British Columbia’s tourism sector continues to post robust recovery and, in several key markets, new records. Urban centers like Vancouver and Victoria are seeing hotel occupancy and room rates at or above 2019 benchmarks, while resort areas including Whistler, the Okanagan, and Vancouver Island surf towns report extended peak seasons driven by both Canadian and overseas visitors. Operators say that fewer Canadians heading to U.S. sun destinations in winter has helped sustain demand for ski, spa, and culinary experiences within the province.
British Columbia’s role as a gateway for Asia-Pacific travel has also become more prominent as airlines and tour operators rebalance routes away from the United States. New and expanded services to Asia, Mexico, and Europe via Vancouver are making it easier for international visitors to pair long-haul trips with multi-stop Canadian itineraries that include Alberta, the Rockies, and the prairies. Tourism leaders describe a deliberate effort to position Western Canada as a self-contained circuit for nature-based and cultural travel.
Farther north, Yukon and the Northwest Territories have benefited from the same dynamics, albeit at a smaller scale. Adventure and expedition operators say domestic bookings from Canadian travelers are filling capacity that might once have been reserved mainly for foreign visitors. With concern rising about climate impacts on fragile northern ecosystems, there is a sense of urgency among both travelers and local communities to responsibly manage what could be a once-in-a-generation tourism boom.
Quebec and Atlantic Canada Ride the Domestic Travel Wave
Quebec has emerged as another standout. While comprehensive national figures for 2025 are still being compiled, provincial officials and city tourism agencies report record or near-record hotel demand in Montreal and Quebec City during major festivals and holiday periods. Rural and regional tourism in areas such as the Laurentians, Gaspé Peninsula, and Eastern Townships has surged as well, with many properties reporting more Canadians extending stays and returning multiple times within a year.
Tourism stakeholders in Quebec link the trend partly to shifting attitudes in the province toward cross-border travel. Surveys conducted since early 2025 have shown a significant share of Quebec residents cancelling or shortening U.S. trips and reallocating budgets to domestic experiences. Local businesses, from boutique inns to restaurants and outfitters, say that has translated into higher spending on food, culture, and guided activities at home.
Across the Atlantic region, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador are also seeing strong seasons. Nova Scotia has reported record cruise calls to Halifax and a sharp increase in road-trippers from central Canada, even as visits from U.S. states such as Maine and Massachusetts soften. Island destinations like PEI and Newfoundland are booking out earlier as Canadians who once might have chosen New England coastal towns look instead to lighthouses, seafood, and beaches within Canada’s borders.
Data Show Sharp Decline in Canadian Travel to the United States
Behind the provincial tourism boom lies a steep contraction in Canadian travel to the United States. Statistics Canada and industry forecasters estimate that Canadians made roughly 39 million trips to the United States in 2024, representing about three-quarters of all Canadian international journeys. That longstanding pattern is now rapidly eroding. By mid-2025, transborder overnight trips were down by almost 18 percent year over year, according to the Conference Board of Canada, even as overseas travel climbed.
The declines accelerated through 2025. Monthly data show Canadian resident returns from trips to the United States falling by close to 30 percent in late summer compared with the previous year, and car-based border crossings registering more than eleven consecutive months of double-digit declines. Industry surveys report that leisure bookings to the United States plunged by 40 percent in February 2025 compared with a year earlier, with millions of potential visitors either cancelling trips outright or redirecting them to non-U.S. destinations.
Air travel has followed suit. Flight bookings from Canada to the United States fell by more than 70 percent in March 2025 compared with 2024, prompting airlines to cut hundreds of thousands of seats from cross-border routes. While actual passenger volumes have not dropped quite as sharply as bookings, carriers and tourism economists agree that the shift is both deep and durable, reshaping North American travel flows as Canadians adjust their habits.
Politics, Tariffs, and Perceptions Fuel a Boycott Mood
Analysts point to a confluence of political and economic forces behind the downturn in U.S.-bound Canadian travel. The imposition of steep U.S. tariffs on Canadian goods in early 2025, coupled with confrontational rhetoric from Washington that many Canadians view as dismissive of the bilateral relationship, has triggered a broad consumer backlash. A series of polls throughout last year found that large shares of Canadians who had planned to visit the United States either cancelled or were strongly considering changing their plans in response to the political climate.
Concerns about personal treatment at the border and within the United States have added to the unease. Media reports of Canadian tourists detained or denied entry and heightened enforcement operations under stricter immigration policies have reinforced perceptions that cross-border travel is less welcoming and more unpredictable than before. For many middle-class families weighing where to spend vacation savings, that uncertainty has tipped the balance toward destinations closer to home or overseas alternatives.
Economic factors are amplifying the effect. A relatively weak Canadian dollar, which has hovered around 70 U.S. cents, makes hotels, restaurants, and attractions south of the border more expensive in real terms. Combined with higher airfares and lingering inflation, the cost gap between a U.S. city break and a domestic or European trip has narrowed. Tourism marketing experts say the result is not a temporary dip but a broader “values-driven” boycott mood among Canadians who see staying away from the United States as both a financial decision and a political statement.
Airlines and Tour Operators Pivot Capacity Away From the U.S.
Canada’s airlines have moved quickly to respond. Montreal-based Air Transat, one of the country’s largest leisure carriers, has announced plans to exit the U.S. market entirely by mid-2026, cancelling its remaining routes to Florida. Company executives characterize the decision as a strategic redeployment, saying that U.S. flights now account for only a small fraction of capacity compared with stronger-performing routes to Mexico, the Caribbean, and Europe where demand from Canadian vacationers remains robust.
WestJet, Canada’s second-largest airline, has trimmed its U.S. network as well, suspending or reducing dozens of cross-border routes and cutting overall transborder capacity by roughly 10 percent. Other carriers, including Air Canada and smaller low-cost operators, have quietly pulled back from secondary U.S. airports while adding new connections within Canada and to sun destinations in Latin America and the Caribbean. The shift has made it easier for Canadians to plan multi-stop domestic trips and has boosted point-to-point connectivity between provinces.
Tour operators and travel agencies report parallel changes in booking patterns. Packages built around U.S. theme parks, Las Vegas weekends, or cross-border shopping trips have seen sharp cancellations, while demand has surged for Canadian rail journeys, northern lights tours, Atlantic Canada road trips, and European city combinations that connect via Canadian hubs. Industry insiders say they are redesigning brochures and marketing for 2026 and beyond on the assumption that reduced Canadian appetite for U.S. travel will persist.
Provinces Race to Capture Reallocated Travel Dollars
With billions of dollars in Canadian travel spending being redirected, provincial tourism organizations are racing to ensure that as much of that money as possible stays within Canada. Marketing campaigns from Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, and Nova Scotia now emphasize comparative value, safety, and cultural familiarity, highlighting that Canadians can access world-class nature, food, and festivals without currency shocks or complicated border procedures.
Alberta has launched targeted campaigns in major eastern cities positioning the Rockies and prairie towns as compelling alternatives to popular U.S. mountain and desert destinations. Manitoba is promoting weekend cultural getaways in Winnipeg as substitutes for short U.S. city breaks, while Nova Scotia tourism officials pitch the province’s coastlines and seafood as a stand-in for New England and mid-Atlantic coastal escapes. Quebec’s tourism board is highlighting the province’s European flair, aiming to capture travelers who might otherwise have flown to the United States as a springboard to Europe.
Industry leaders caution that sustaining these gains will require continued investment in infrastructure, labour, and environmental stewardship. The wildfire seasons of recent years have underscored the vulnerability of Canadian tourism to climate-related disruption, even as demand grows. For now, though, the combination of strong domestic marketing, improved air links, and a broad rethinking of travel priorities has put provinces such as Alberta firmly on the front line of a historic realignment in where Canadians choose to spend their vacation time and money.