Despite the escalating trade war, cross-border travel picked up again in August, according to new data from Statistics Canada.
The national statistical agency reported that the preliminary data indicates that travel to Canada — including both foreign visitors and Canadians returning home — rose by 4.3% last month, compared with the same month in 2025.
In particular, the number of Canadian residents returning from the U.S. was up by 8.8% in the month, led by a 9.9% increase in cross-border car trips.
At the same time, the number of Americans travelling to Canada was up 2.4% in August — the seventh straight month of an increase compared with the same month in 2025.
In its first full month of operation, the new Gordie Howe International Bridge was used for 134,900 trips by Canadians and 101,000 border crossings by U.S. residents — in both cases, over half of these trips were same-day jaunts, Statistics Canada reported.
At the same time, the number of cross-border trips at Windsor’s other bridge and tunnel crossings were down by 35.4% from the same month a year ago.
And, while cross-border travel has picked up from 2025, the volume is still down sharply from pre-trade war 2024. The number of Canadians returning from the U.S. by car in August was still down by 27.4% from August 2024, Statistics Canada noted.