Tourism direct GVA (2025) | Tourism direct employment (2025) | Travel exports (2025) |
|---|---|---|
1.8% of total GVA (equal to share in 2024) | 3.4% of total employment (equal to share in 2024) | 29.9% of total service exports (equal to share in 2024) |
OECD Tourism Trends and Policies 2026
National tourism strategy: Canada 365: Welcoming the World. Every Day. The Federal Tourism Growth Strategy
National tourism administration: Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development
National tourism budget: Cannot be precisely quantified, as tourism spans multiple ministries and funding initiatives, both directly and indirectly, across government
Key tourism policy priorities and actions:
Strengthening resilience – Enhancing the sector’s capacity to adapt to climate impacts, attract major international events, and address workforce pressures in support of sustained growth and stability.
Promoting outdoor recreation and nature-based tourism – Maintaining and enhancing the Trans Canada Trail, supporting local tourism projects to strengthen recreational tourism infrastructure and integrating climate adaptation into infrastructure planning.
Advancing Indigenous tourism – Supporting Indigenous-led tourism initiatives by working with Indigenous partners to increase access, awareness and support to foster reconciliation and inclusive economic development.
Tourism plays an important role in the Canadian economy, creating jobs, and socio-economic growth throughout the country. In 2024, tourism directly contributed CAD 50.8 billion or 1.8% of Canada’s total GVA. Tourism directly supported 702 650 jobs, and in total supports 1 in 10 Canadian jobs. Travel is one of Canada's top service exports, accounting for 29.9% of total service exports in 2025.
In 2024, Canada recorded over 19.9 million international tourist arrivals. Spending by international tourists reached CAN 31.1 billion, accounting for nearly a quarter (24%) of total tourism expenditure (CAD 129.7 billion). Canada’s top three international source markets were the United States (71%), the United Kingdom (4%) and France (3%). International tourist arrivals decreased by 0.6% in 2025. Domestic tourism remains an important backbone of tourism in Canada, accounting for 76% (CAD 98.6 billion) of total tourism expenditure in 2024, with over 105.6 million domestic tourist arrivals recorded.
Destination Canada’s 2023 Tourism Outlook projects that if Canada’s tourism sector continues its current trajectory, internal tourism expenditure could surpass CAD 150 billion by 2030.
In Canada, all tiers of government play a role in supporting the tourism sector. The Department of Innovation, Science and Economic Development is responsible for tourism policy development at the federal level and collaborates across government on tourism related policies. Regional Development Agencies and other federal entities also play an important role in delivering programmes and services that benefit tourism operators – both through dedicated, tourism-specific initiatives and broader programming accessible to businesses, including those in the visitor economy.
Destination Canada is the national destination marketing organisation responsible for promoting Canada internationally, securing business events, conventions and meetings and providing data and analytics to inform decision making by tourism sector enterprises and stakeholders.
The Canadian Council of Tourism Ministers works to ensure horizontal and vertical co-ordination among the levels of government, bringing together the federal, provincial, and territorial tourism ministers annually to discuss trends and issues facing Canada’s tourism sector, and identify collaboration opportunities. In 2025, the Council established working groups focused on innovation, investment and tourism emergency management.
Provincial and territorial governments are responsible for tourism promotion (domestic and some international), destination and product development, regulation of accommodation services, and hospitality and tourism education.
The funding landscape for Canada's tourism sector is largely based on multi-year, time-limited commitments. For instance, Budget 2025 proposes to provide CAD 116.3 million over two years to Parks Canada and Canadian Heritage, starting in 2026-27, to renew the Canada Strong Pass for the holiday and summer season. Budget 2025 also included investments in transportation and community infrastructure that support tourism competitiveness indirectly, including upgrades at regional airports, measures to strengthen marine port investment, and broader connectivity-enabling infrastructure across Canada.
Source: OECD, adapted from Innovation, Science, and Economic Development Canada, 2026.
The Canadian tourism sector’s strategic direction is guided by the Federal Tourism Growth Strategy, which was launched in 2023. The Strategy’s five priorities, investing in tourism assets, embracing outdoor recreation, partnering on Indigenous tourism, attracting international events, and improving federal co-ordination, are central to federal efforts.
Progress on key metrics continues to be measured. For example, the Strategy aims to improve Canada's World Economic Forum Global Travel and Tourism Development Index ranking from 13th in 2021 to 7th by 2030. Canada has already made significant progress, climbing to 11th place in the 2024 index thanks to strong performance in a competitive global market. Canada continues to work toward its goals through a number of key programmes and investments:
The Tourism Growth Programme invested CAD 108 million over three years until March 2026 to help the tourism sector grow and develop local projects, delivering targeted investments to over 555 projects across the country, with 20% of funding going towards Indigenous initiatives.
The Indigenous Tourism Fund (CAD 26 million), launched in 2023 to accelerate the growth of Indigenous tourism in Canada. The programme has supported 326 Indigenous tourism operators of micro and small businesses to address barriers and visitor readiness while also helping to develop 18 key Indigenous tourism destinations through the Signature Indigenous Tourism Experiences Stream. Collectively, these projects are expected to maintain or create hundreds of jobs across the country, including more than 300 new full-time, part-time, and seasonal positions. Several projects are projected to boost regional tourism, with estimated visitor numbers is expected to be over 663 000 across all recipients.
The International Convention Attraction Fund was established to secure major international business events. As of December 2025, this fund had already helped secure 104 international events for Canada, with an estimated economic impact of CAD 734.6 million. An investment of CAD 60 million has been provided over three years.
Co-hosting the 2026 FIFA World Cup alongside the United States and Mexico. This collaboration includes joint promotional efforts, infrastructure co-ordination, and streamlined travel facilitation.
The Canadian Tourism Data Collective to provide accessible and centralised tourism data for decision making (see box below).
Destination Canada’s NorthStar partnership network brings together leading destination marketing and management organisations from across the country. This network plays a critical role in aligning increasing visitation, tourism spending, and investment and marketing efforts by promoting Canada’s diverse regions and experiences. Support is also being provided to provinces, territories, and industry stakeholders to implement targeted training, recruitment, and retention strategies. This includes support for upskilling and reskilling programmes, immigration pathways for tourism workers and initiatives to improve working conditions and career mobility within the sector. Special attention is being given to underrepresented groups, including youth, newcomers and Indigenous Peoples, to build a more inclusive and diverse tourism workforce.
Traditionally, tourism data in Canada is collected, processed, organised, and disseminated by Canada's central Statistical Agency, Statistics Canada. While this ensures tourism data follows the international standard for the system of national accounts and the Tourism Satellite Accounts framework, it poses challenges to measuring the impact of programme and service delivery, particularly related to geographic and demographic granularity and the timeliness of data.
The Canadian Tourism Data Collective, launched by Destination Canada in 2024, with the support of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) and Statistics Canada, has been designed to enhance access to reliable, data-driven insights across the tourism sector. It serves as a strategic data platform that enables industry stakeholders, community representatives, and government institutions to access robust, evidence-based insights.
The Data Collective features:
Dashboards highlighting tourism performance through future-focused indicators and economic modelling
Publications communicating findings on topics that matter most for tourism stakeholders
Traveller Profiles that will drive audience segmentation, targeting and marketing ROI
Geospatial Mapping to inform supply-side intelligence and investment decisions
The platform integrates AI-powered products to support informed policy development and decision making across Canada’s tourism economy through timely and actionable intelligence.