U.S. visitors to Manitoba up in 1st quarter of 2025, bucking national trend: StatsCan

While the number of people visiting Canada from the U.S. declined earlier this year, Manitoba may be bucking that trend.

According to Statistics Canada, in March, the number of U.S. trips to Canada by automobile was down by 10.6 per cent from the same month in 2024.

Winnipeg is "not immune to global shifts," representatives of Economic Development Winnipeg told the city's finance committee last week.

But new data from Statistics Canada shows that land border crossings into Manitoba increased by 7.6 per cent during the first quarter of 2025, compared to the January to March period last year.

"Though nationally we're seeing a decline — I would say a stable decline — in U.S. visitation, in Manitoba we're not seeing the same impact, based on the most recent Statistics Canada data, by land crossing and also by air," Natalie Thiesen, vice-president of tourism with Economic Development Winnipeg, said in an interview Wednesday. 

Arrivals by air in Manitoba increased even more during the same period — by about 60 per cent, Thiesen said.

That may be due partly to increased capacity from new flights coming online within the last year.

The agency has heard concerns from some Americans who worried they won't be welcome if they come here, Thiesen said.

Economic Development Winnipeg commissioned a poll by Probe Research, conducted from March 4 to 16, that suggests a strong majority of the 600 respondents said Manitobans should still warmly welcome Americans, Thiesen said.

"So that's telling [about] our friendly Manitoba nature and Winnipeggers' willingness to welcome Americans to our jurisdiction, and they're an important piece of business to our visitor economy," said Thiesen.

The head of the Manitoba Hotel Association says there are a number of big events planned this year, expected to draw large numbers of tourists.

"So [we're] pretty optimistic for the year ahead. And yeah, we really haven't heard much or anything of large changes in U.S. demand in Winnipeg or Manitoba so far," said president and CEO Michael Juce.

Tourism is a $1-billion industry in Winnipeg, and cross-border travel represents about 25 per cent of visitor expenditures in the city, said finance committee chair Coun. Jeff Browaty.

Many Canadians are also looking at travel options within Canada rather than going to the U.S., and Winnipeg is attempting to capture some of that interest through a new tourism campaign touting the province's status as Canada's "middle child."

Browaty said he believes the favourable exchange rate for the U.S. dollar in Canada may also serve as an enticement for American shoppers. 

"The personal relationships that exist between Canadians and Americans, I think will persevere, even though they're definitely suffering at the moment," he said.