Destination Italy

All eyes are on Italy as 207 athletes from across Canada compete to bring home gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Of course, Italy has much more to offer Canadians than just a place on the podium. It is also an important travel destination, a key trade partner and the ancestral home of over 1.5 million Canadians.

While the Winter Olympics take place every four years, Italian food, culture, fashion and Mediterranean charm are a huge draw for Canadian visitors every year, cracking the top five destinations for Canadian travellers with 784,000 visits in 2024.

Italy was Canada’s 14th largest export partner in 2024, with $3.3 billion of Canadian goods shipped to the country.

Farm and food products took gold in terms of exports to Italy at $929 million; aircraft and other transportation equipment and parts claimed silver at $826 million; and consumer goods took the bronze at $552 million.

Some households in Canada—Italian Canadian households among them—will undoubtedly be cheering for more than one country these Olympics. Over 1.5 million Canadians reported Italian as their ethnicity (single or multiple origin) on the 2021 Census, making Italian the eighth-largest ethnic or cultural origin in Canada.