International arrivals to Canada rise 4.2% in October
Preliminary international arrivals by air and automobile totalled 4.9 million in October, up 4.2% from a year earlier.
International arrivals to Canada by air and automobile totalled a preliminary 4.9 million in October, up 4.2% from the same month in 2025, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.
Canadian residents made 2.8 million return trips from abroad, an increase of 2.2%. Trips by U.S. residents to Canada rose 8.1% to 1.5 million, including about 1.1 million arrivals by automobile and 414,400 by air. Arrivals by residents of overseas countries increased 5.0% to 465,296.
The agency describes the release as a leading indicator. Air counts are based on commercial-aircraft arrivals processed through Primary Inspection Kiosks, while automobile counts use land-border systems and a subset of NEXUS Highway data.
Statistics Canada cautions that continuing integration of NEXUS Highway data affects comparisons from August 2026 onward. Complete October travel counts are scheduled for release on December 21.
Sources
- Statistics Canada, “Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada, October 2026”, released November 12, 2026.
Featured image: illustrative stock photo by D YQ via Unsplash under the Unsplash License. Cropped and resized for publication; it does not depict the reported event.
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