Int'l Inbound U.S. Corp Demand Stabilizes, Canada Still Wary

The state of international inbound U.S. business travel in 2025 has been the source of much conjecture, considering negative reaction overseas to the Trump administration's tariff strategy and concern about treatment of inbound visitors. The most recent data, though, seems to indicate stabilizing business travel demand, with the notable exceptions of U.S. neighbors Canada and Mexico. 

According to preliminary U.S. International Trade Administration data, total international visitors to the U.S. in May, excluding those from Canada and Mexico, decreased 2.8 percent year over year. However, those entering on business visas or through the Visa Waiver Program in May, excluding Canada and Mexico, increased 1.7 percent.

That figure is notable because May wasn't affected by a shifting holiday calendar, allowing for a more direct year-over-year comparison. The Easter holiday, around which business travel traditionally slows, was March 31 in 2024 but April 20 in 2025, potentially affecting international inbound U.S. business traveler counts in both months: March 2025 showed a notable year-over-year increase, while April showed the opposite.

Year to date through the end of May, inbound international U.S. travelers on business visas increased 4.2 percent year over year, excluding Canada and Mexico, even as total arrivals have dopped 0.8 percent. Business travel arrivals from Western Europe increased 2.1 percent year over year, while arrivals from Asia increased 6.4 percent and those from South America increased 4.7 percent.

Neighborly Approach?

All those figures, however, exclude arrivals from Canada and Mexico, and data continues to point to reduced inbound U.S. business travel from both countries.

Preliminary U.S. International Trade Administration data for May shows that travelers entering the U.S. from Mexico on business visas who arrived in manners other than land decreased 13.6 percent year over year—enough of a decline to drop the overall international May figure to a 0.5 percent increase from a 1.7 percent increase.

Year to date through May, such arrivals from Mexico, again excluding land arrivals, dropped 16.6 percent year over year.

Similar trends appear afoot in Canada, where anger at the U.S. tariffs and President Trump's assertions that Canada should join the U.S. as a state have fueled a leisure travel boycott that continues. 

In May, Canadian residents' return trips from the United States via air declined more than 24 percent year over year even as return air trips from other countries declined less than 4 percent, according to Statistics Canada, a Canadian federal government agency. Return trips from the U.S. by car in April, meanwhile, dropped 38 percent year over year

The U.S. remains an unlikely destination for Canadian leisure travelers, according to a May 16-19 online survey of 1,537 Canadians conducted by market research form Leger. It found that only 10 percent plan to travel to the U.S. this summer, down from 23 percent last year, while 56 percent who said they had planned to visit the U.S. said they now intend to travel elsewhere.