US, Canada And Mexico Reveal A Tourism Spending Divide

Tourism across North America is showing a growing spending divide between the United States, Canada and Mexico, with visitor numbers, international spending and travel patterns moving in different directions. New 2025 data from the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) shows Mexico recording stronger growth in Travel & Tourism than both the United States and Canada, while Canadian travellers are increasingly shifting spending away from the United States toward domestic and overseas destinations.

The changing pattern is significant because the three countries form one of the world’s most interconnected travel markets. Millions of travellers regularly cross their shared borders, meaning changes in consumer behaviour can quickly affect hotels, airlines, restaurants, attractions, retailers and local tourism economies.

Mexico Emerges As North America’s Growth Leader

According to WTTC’s 2026 Economic Impact Research, Mexico’s Travel & Tourism GDP grew 1.8% in 2025, compared with 0.9% for the United States and 1.2% for Canada.

Mexico also recorded the strongest growth in international visitor spending, increasing 3.5% in 2025. By comparison, international visitor spending declined 4.6% in the United States and 3.5% in Canada.

The figures highlight an important difference between tourism scale and tourism growth. The United States remains the world’s largest Travel & Tourism economy, but Mexico is currently showing stronger growth across several key international tourism indicators.

Canada Sees Travellers Redirect Their Spending

Canada’s tourism picture is more complicated because domestic and international travel are moving in different directions.

In 2025, Canadian residents made 342 million domestic visits, up 1.5% from 2024, while domestic tourism spending reached C$81.3 billion, an increase of 8.7%.

At the same time, travel to the United States declined sharply. Canadian-resident trips that included a visit to the US fell to 23.1 million in 2025, down 23.5% from the previous year, while spending on those trips declined 15.1% to C$18.8 billion.

The contrast suggests that Canadian travel demand has not disappeared. Instead, a larger share of that spending is being directed toward Canada itself and overseas destinations.

Overseas Travel Is Taking A Bigger Share

Canadian travellers increasingly looked beyond the United States in 2025.

Trips to overseas countries reached 14.3 million, an increase of 10.2% from 2024. Spending on overseas visits climbed even faster, rising 17.5% to C$31.3 billion.

The trend continued into early 2026. During the first quarter, Canadians made 4.6 million overseas trips, up 6.2% year over year, and spent approximately C$10.1 billion overseas, an increase of 16.7%.

That spending difference is particularly important for tourism destinations because overseas trips tend to be longer. Canadian travellers averaged 13.3 nights and C$2,210 per overseas visit during the first quarter of 2026.

The United States Faces A Different Tourism Environment

The United States remains by far the largest tourism economy in North America and globally, but its international visitor market has faced a more challenging growth environment.

WTTC’s 2025 figures show international visitor spending in the US declined 4.6%, while Canada’s declined 3.5%. Mexico, by contrast, recorded a 3.5% increase.

At the same time, the US continues to generate enormous outbound travel demand. In March 2026 alone, 9.31 million US citizens departed internationally, an increase of 5.2% from March 2025. Mexico accounted for more than 3.73 million of those departures, representing 40.1% of the month’s total.

This creates an interesting imbalance: Americans continue travelling internationally in very large numbers, while some traditional inbound markets are behaving differently.

Canada Still Attracts More US Visitors

Despite the changing relationship between Canadian and US travellers, Canada continues to attract substantial American demand.

During the first quarter of 2026, 3.6 million US residents travelled to Canada, an increase of 3.4% compared with the same period in 2025. Their spending reached C$3 billion, up 16.5%.

US visitors also spent considerably more on overnight Canadian trips than on same-day visits. The average expenditure for an overnight visit was C$1,323, compared with C$170 for a same-day visit.

This illustrates why Canadian destinations increasingly focus not only on visitor volume but also on attracting travellers who stay longer and spend more locally.

Mexico Benefits From Canadian Demand

Mexico is also benefiting from the shift in Canadian travel patterns.

Statistics Canada recorded 1.3 million Canadian visits to Mexico during the first quarter of 2026, making it the most visited overseas country by Canadian residents during the period. That represented an increase of approximately 51,000 visits from the same quarter of 2025.

Mexico’s combination of direct air connectivity, established resort destinations, warm-weather tourism and diverse cultural attractions gives it a strong position in the Canadian long-haul holiday market.

The country’s growth is therefore occurring at a time when Canadian travellers are actively reallocating international travel spending.

Travel Spending Is Becoming More Important Than Visitor Numbers

The North American figures demonstrate why visitor arrivals alone do not tell the complete tourism story.

A destination can receive fewer travellers but still generate significant economic activity if visitors stay longer and spend more. Conversely, a large number of short trips can produce substantial arrival statistics without generating the same level of accommodation, restaurant and attraction spending.

Canada’s first-quarter 2026 data provides a clear example. Overseas visitors made only 990,000 trips to Canada, compared with 3.6 million US trips, but overseas visitors spent C$2.1 billion and averaged C$2,085 per trip.

That makes traveller quality, length of stay and spending patterns increasingly important measures for destination planners.

Tourism Businesses Must Adapt To Changing Markets

Hotels, airlines and tourism operators across North America are responding to an increasingly fragmented travel market.

Canadian businesses can benefit from stronger domestic tourism and growing overseas demand, while destinations in Mexico have an opportunity to capture travellers looking for longer international holidays.

For US destinations, maintaining strong connections with both domestic travellers and international visitors remains important as cross-border travel patterns evolve.

The changes also create opportunities for destinations to diversify their source markets rather than depending heavily on one neighbouring country.

A Three-Country Tourism Market In Transition

The United States, Canada and Mexico remain deeply connected through tourism, but the latest figures show that travel money is moving differently across the three economies.

Mexico is recording stronger international tourism growth. Canada is seeing domestic tourism and overseas travel gain momentum while Canadian trips to the United States decline. The United States remains the region’s largest tourism economy and continues to generate enormous outbound demand.

Together, these trends suggest that North American tourism is entering a period in which where travellers go, how long they stay and how much they spend may be more important than simply counting arrivals.

Key Takeaways

• Mexico’s Travel & Tourism GDP grew 1.8% in 2025, compared with 0.9% in the United States and 1.2% in Canada.
• Mexico’s international visitor spending increased 3.5%, while spending declined 4.6% in the US and 3.5% in Canada.
• Canadians made 342 million domestic visits in 2025, spending C$81.3 billion, up 8.7% year over year.
• Canadian trips to the United States fell 23.5% in 2025, while spending declined 15.1% to C$18.8 billion.
• Canadian overseas travel increased 10.2%, with overseas spending rising 17.5% to C$31.3 billion in 2025.
• In Q1 2026, Canadians spent C$10.1 billion overseas, compared with C$5 billion on trips to the US.
• Mexico received 1.3 million Canadian visits in Q1 2026, making it Canada’s most visited overseas destination during the period.
• US residents made 3.6 million trips to Canada in Q1 2026, spending C$3 billion, up 16.5%.
• The data shows that length of stay and visitor spending are becoming increasingly important alongside arrival volumes.

Bottom Line

The tourism relationship between the US, Canada and Mexico is entering a period of significant change. Mexico is recording stronger international tourism growth, Canada is benefiting from rising domestic and overseas travel, while Canadian travel to the United States has declined substantially. The United States remains the region’s largest tourism economy, but the latest spending patterns show that North American travellers are becoming more selective about where they spend their holiday budgets. For tourism businesses across the three countries, diversifying markets and attracting longer-stay, higher-spending visitors are becoming increasingly important.