Canadians are spending more on visits within Canada—here’s the breakdown

The most recent data are out, and travel within the country continues to increase. In the second quarter of 2025, Canadian residents took 90.6 million trips that included a domestic visit, an increase of roughly one-tenth (+10.9%) from the same quarter a year earlier. This is the highest number for any second quarter on record since the National Travel Survey started tracking these data in 2018.

In the second quarter of 2025, the main contributors to the year-over-year increase were more visits to see friends and relatives (+4.4 million visits), for shopping, non-routine (+3.0 million), for other personal reasons (+719,000) and for business and professional reasons (+699,000).

As our expenditure data show, there’s been a boost in spending alongside the increase in travel. Let’s take a look at the highlights.

Canadian residents spent $20.3 billion on visits within Canada in the second quarter, up 13.5% from the second quarter of 2024. It was the most spent in any second quarter on record.

In the second quarter of 2025, spending on food and beverages remained the highest share of overall expenditures, rising 20.4% from a year earlier to $5.4 billion. Transportation expenditures rose 11.1% to $3.1 billion, while recreation and entertainment expenditures increased 23.6% to $1.8 billion.

Clothing expenditures ticked down by 1.9% to $695.4 million, possibly a sign that travellers needed to reduce discretionary spending.

Meanwhile, other expenditures, such as gifts and souvenirs and other miscellaneous items, increased by 25.2% to $1.2 billion.

By province of origin, travellers from Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) (+97.2%) upped their spending the most in the second quarter from a year earlier, followed by British Columbia (+35.2%) and New Brunswick (+24.2%). Travellers departing for their trips from Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Manitoba and Saskatchewan spent less.

While more travel contributed to higher expenditures, prices also factored in. For example, in June 2025 at a national level, prices for food purchased from restaurants (+3.2%) and stores (+2.8%) increased on a year-over-year basis.

Prices for transportation (-0.6%) and traveller accommodation (+1.1%) were little changed over the same period but increased for other cultural and recreational services (+5.1%), which include spectator entertainment.

Whether Canadians travelled in their own province or ventured out to another, there were some interesting takeaways for Atlantic Canada.

Although accommodation expenditures dipped 13.8% from a year earlier to $68.5 million in the second quarter in Newfoundland and Labrador, overnight visitors upped their spending by 30.1% to an average of $532 per visit.

In neighbouring P.E.I., visitors stayed for shorter periods compared with a year earlier, with the average visit length falling from 3.4 nights to 2.7 nights in the second quarter. However, expenditures per night ($184) by overnight visitors in P.E.I. in the second quarter were the highest among provinces and territories, and they were well above the national average ($140).

Added together, P.E.I., Nova Scotia and New Brunswick accounted for three-fifths (60.6%) of the $64.9-million year-over-year boost in nationwide vehicle rental expenditures in the second quarter. Meanwhile, visitors spent $60.2 million more on food and beverages in all four Atlantic provinces over the same period. 

Visitors spent more in Ontario (+$29.6 million) and Quebec (+$5.5 million) on local transportation in the second quarter than they did a year earlier. Average per-visit expenditures for same-day visits in Ontario ($70) and Quebec ($75) were unchanged, as was the national average ($81).

Visitors spent $125.0 million on commercial transportation (excluding flights) in Quebec in the second quarter, more than triple (+217.1%) what they spent a year earlier.

Compared with a year earlier, visitors increased their spending in the second quarter at bars and restaurants in Manitoba (+$14.3 million) and on recreation and entertainment in Saskatchewan (+$5.1 million), though both provinces saw a decrease in overall expenditures.

In Alberta, day trippers upped their spending on food and beverages (+$88.8 million) to more than offset a decline in accommodation expenditures by overnight visitors (-$54.8 million).

Next door, overnight visitors to British Columbia spent an average of $547 per visit, the highest among provinces and territories.

Combined, the three territories had the highest average expenditures per visit ($483) in Canada in the second quarter and the highest average overnight visit duration (4.6 nights). However, both figures were down considerably from a year earlier.