Vancouver 
Canada’s World Cup host cities appear to have drawn a noticeable wave of international visitors in June, helping push total arrivals to 5.5 million.
Credit: City of Toronto
Preliminary figures show international arrivals by air and automobile rose 3.6 per cent from June 2025. The total includes Canadian residents returning home, along with visitors from the United States and overseas.
The clearest World Cup effect came from the 15 overseas countries whose teams played matches in Vancouver and Toronto. Air arrivals from those countries increased 32.5 per cent from a year earlier, representing 29,500 additional visitors.
Panama recorded the largest increase, with 9,392 more air arrivals than in June 2025. Australia followed with an increase of 7,693, while Germany added 3,899. Switzerland and Croatia also posted notable gains of 2,727 and 2,509, respectively. Türkiye was the only country on the list to record a decline, with 115 fewer arrivals.
The timing of some travel peaks closely matched the match schedule. Australian arrivals reached their highest point on Friday, June 12, before the country’s match in Vancouver. Arrivals from Panama peaked on Tuesday, June 16, one day before its game in Toronto. German arrivals were highest on Friday, June 19, ahead of a Toronto match on June 20.
Vancouver and Toronto hosted 13 FIFA World Cup matches between June 12 and July 7.
Beyond tournament-related travel, overseas-resident trips to Canada rose 5.1 per cent from June 2025. Air arrivals increased 5.8 per cent to 620,800, while automobile arrivals fell 2.0 per cent to 53,500. The busiest day for overseas visitors was Friday, June 26, when 27,700 arrivals were recorded.
Travel from the United States also moved higher. US residents made 2.2 million trips to Canada in June, up 5.1 per cent and marking the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year growth.
Most of that increase came from road travel. US residents made 1.5 million automobile trips to Canada, a rise of 7.6 per cent. Air travel moved in the opposite direction, slipping 0.3 per cent to 663,900 trips.
The busiest day for American arrivals was Friday, June 19, a federal holiday in the United States, when 119,600 visitors entered Canada.
Canadian residents made 2.6 million return trips from abroad, up 2.0 per cent from June 2025. However, travel from the United States remained well below earlier levels. Compared with June 2024, Canadian return trips from the US were down 28.7 per cent, including declines of 29.6 per cent by automobile and 25.0 per cent by air.
