Canada’s travel industry is still fighting to find some equilibrium after COVID interrupted personal and business travel schedules followed by the disruptions caused by the Trump administration’s tariffs.
StatsCan has just released data showing the travel industry was just getting its feet under it last year. Sales had begun to approach pre-COVID levels but 2025 is expected to see another pull-back as travel to the US is down.
Strong sales last year were especially evident for those in the wholesale and ticketing side of the business. Revenues in 2024 rose by more than 10-percent for these firms, which outpaced the other two principal segments of the industry: travel agencies and tour operators.
Revenues for both those groups grew in 2024 but they were still behind pre-pandemic levels. Tour operators saw roughly 80-percent of their clients purchase international holiday packages for destinations in nations other than the US.
For travel agents, airline tickets still account for the lion’s share of their sales – roughly 35-percent. Another quarter came from the sale of tour packages. And, again, non-American destinations dominated their traffic.
