Canadian tourism industry posts record numbers for summer 2025

The summer of 205 was a record breaker for Canada’s tourism sector, with revenue between May and August reaching nearly $60 billion. The strong performance, represented a 6% year-over-year increase, and was defined by robust demand that successfully spread economic benefits across the entire country.

The record revenue was driven by a strong base of Canadian travellers who chose to explore our country like never before, with the highest domestic growth coming from inter-provincial travel spending.

Rising international interest also powered the record summer, particularly from overseas markets, where visitor spend surged 10.4%. Overall, visitors are spending more per trip, resulting in higher yield this summer.

Broken down, the numbers show that:

• Tourism Grew Across the Country: Tourism growth proved to be a “truly national economic contribution”. The impact was broad-based, with 89% of Canadian regions posting year-over-year growth.
• Standout Regional Growth: Notably, 59% of regions outperformed the average growth of Canada’s major metro areas, demonstrating a successful dispersion of tourism, including overseas travellers. Atlantic Canada, in particular, emerged as a standout performer, posting some of the highest growth rates in the country.
• Domestic tourism spending surge: Domestic tourism spending grew 6.9% year over year in summer 2025, reflecting Canadians’ enthusiasm for exploring their own backyard. Notably, inter-provincial spending recorded a higher year-over-year increase than intra-provincial spending, highlighting a growing appetite to travel farther afield. Mid-summer results also point to the catalytic impact of the Canada Strong Pass, which helped drive increased visitation to museums and Parks Canada sites.
• Record Accommodation Strength: The accommodation sector showed broad gains across Canada, both in rural and urban locations.
• National hotel occupancy reached 80.7% in August 2025, the highest since 2014. Both hotel and short-term rental occupancies grew nationally over the summer, despite expanded supply, a clear sign of stronger travel demand.
• Hotel Revenue Per Available Room (RevPAR) for Canadian hotels rose 7.6% overall over the summer.

In keeping with the pan-Canadian tourism summer boom, regions outside major cities also enjoyed increased demand. The highest increase in occupancy across summer was observed for Manitoba, Vancouver Island, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick.

Go to www.destinationcanada.com for more.