San Francisco Joins Los Angeles and More California Cities as Leading Sources of Canada Tourism Despite Eight Straight Months of Decline in Some Regions in 2026

San Francisco joins Los Angeles and more California cities as leading sources of Canada tourism in 2026, as strong passenger volumes from major gateways continue to support travel demand despite eight straight months of decline in some regions. While San Francisco remains resilient and Los Angeles shows a late-summer recovery, San Diego and Palm Springs highlight the uneven nature of California’s Canada-bound tourism market.

Canada continues to draw a substantial flow of American travellers from California in 2026, but the latest passenger data reveals a sharply divided market. San Francisco has remained resilient, Los Angeles has moved into a late-summer recovery, while San Diego has recorded eight consecutive months of year-on-year decline. Palm Springs has also struggled, despite a brief July surge.

Across San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs, the data shows 570,729 U.S. citizen-originating passengers travelling towards Canada between January and August 2026. That compares with 589,563 during the same period in 2025, representing an overall decline of about 3.2%.

The headline numbers, however, hide major differences between cities. San Francisco generated 270,045 U.S. citizen-originating passengers, marginally exceeding its 2025 total. Los Angeles remained 3.3% lower overall but returned to growth in July and August. San Diego was down 14.3% after eight consecutive negative months, while Palm Springs fell 21.1%.

The result is not a simple story of California tourism to Canada rising or falling. It is a story of different California gateways moving at very different speeds.

San Francisco Leads California With a Resilient Canada Travel Market

San Francisco produced the strongest overall performance among the four California cities analysed. U.S. citizen-originating passenger traffic reached 270,045 between January and August 2026, slightly above the 269,762 recorded during the same period in 2025.

The increase was only 0.1%, but that small gain carries more significance when viewed against declines elsewhere in California.

Month	2025	2026	YoY Change
January	15,401	15,812	+2.7%
February	17,953	18,272	+1.8%
March	20,207	21,100	+4.4%
April	21,696	22,973	+5.9%
May	34,438	32,644	-5.2%
June	59,220	57,279	-3.3%
July	57,072	57,188	+0.2%
August	43,775	44,777	+2.3%
Jan-Aug Total	269,762	270,045	+0.1%

San Francisco began the year positively. Traffic increased during each of the first four months, with growth strengthening from 2.7% in January to 5.9% in April. The market weakened in May and June, but those declines proved temporary. July returned marginally to growth before August improved by 2.3%.

The pattern makes San Francisco the resilience story among the California markets examined. It has neither experienced an enormous boom nor suffered a sustained collapse. Instead, a large existing flow of U.S. travellers has held remarkably close to its 2025 level.

San Francisco also generated the largest January-August passenger volume of the four markets, narrowly ahead of Los Angeles. That scale makes it particularly important to Canada. Even small percentage changes from such a large source market can translate into thousands of travellers.

The data itself does not establish exactly why San Francisco has proved more resilient. Air connectivity, fares, seasonal travel patterns and consumer demand could all influence the results. What can be said with confidence is that San Francisco has maintained its Canada-bound U.S. citizen traffic while several other California cities have lost ground.

Los Angeles Turns the Corner After a Difficult First Half

Los Angeles provides a different story. The market remains below 2025 on a January-August basis, but its monthly figures indicate a significant change in direction during summer.

U.S. citizen-originating traffic totalled 244,677 between January and August 2026, compared with 253,113 a year earlier. That represents a decline of 3.3%, or 8,436 fewer passengers.

But the cumulative decline does not reveal what happened during July and August.

Month	2025	2026	YoY Change
January	16,090	15,118	-6.0%
February	18,036	16,423	-8.9%
March	20,565	19,328	-6.0%
April	23,677	21,163	-10.6%
May	34,273	31,503	-8.1%
June	51,721	50,137	-3.1%
July	51,246	52,302	+2.1%
August	37,505	38,703	+3.2%
Jan-Aug Total	253,113	244,677	-3.3%

Los Angeles recorded six consecutive months of decline between January and June. April was the weakest, falling 10.6%. By June, however, the decline had narrowed substantially to 3.1%.

Then came the turnaround.

July traffic increased 2.1%, followed by stronger growth of 3.2% in August. Los Angeles therefore entered late summer with two consecutive months above 2025 levels.

The recovery remains young. Two positive months cannot erase six negative ones, and Los Angeles is still more than 8,000 passengers behind its January-August 2025 total. Yet the direction is now different.

For Canada, that matters because Los Angeles is a huge California source market. A sustained improvement from such a large gateway can add considerably more travellers than dramatic percentage growth from a much smaller city.

Los Angeles is therefore best understood as the turnaround market: still behind for the year, but showing some of the clearest evidence that the weakness seen earlier in 2026 may be easing.

San Diego Records Eight Straight Months of Decline

San Diego presents the most consistent negative trend among the larger California markets examined.

U.S. citizen-originating traffic was below 2025 levels in every month from January through August. There was no monthly year-on-year recovery during the entire eight-month period.

Traffic totalled 42,565 passengers, compared with 49,646 during January-August 2025. That represents a substantial 14.3% decline.

Month	2025	2026	YoY Change
January	2,527	2,050	-18.9%
February	2,518	1,907	-24.3%
March	3,093	2,216	-28.4%
April	2,957	2,566	-13.2%
May	7,155	6,898	-3.6%
June	12,127	10,200	-15.9%
July	11,015	9,443	-14.3%
August	8,254	7,285	-11.7%
Jan-Aug Total	49,646	42,565	-14.3%

The most severe decline came in March, when passenger numbers dropped 28.4%. February was down 24.3%, while January fell 18.9%.

May appeared to offer some relief. The decline narrowed sharply to just 3.6%. But that improvement did not become a recovery. June dropped 15.9%, July declined 14.3% and August remained 11.7% below 2025.

This is an important contrast with Los Angeles. Both cities began 2026 negatively, but their summer trajectories separated. Los Angeles crossed into growth during July and August. San Diego remained firmly below the previous year’s levels.

The supplied passenger figures cannot determine exactly why San Diego has remained weaker. Airline capacity, fares, route choices, seasonality and consumer behaviour could all play a role, but establishing causation would require additional data.

What the figures establish clearly is that San Diego remains a meaningful source of U.S. travellers to Canada, but it is not currently contributing to year-on-year tourism growth.

Palm Springs Posts the Sharpest Percentage Decline

Palm Springs adds another dimension to California’s uneven Canada travel picture.

The market generated 13,442 U.S. citizen-originating passengers between January and August 2026, down from 17,042 in 2025. That translates into a 21.1% decline, the steepest cumulative percentage fall among the four cities.

Month	2025	2026	YoY Change
January	3,032	2,240	-26.1%
February	3,279	2,412	-26.4%
March	3,750	2,930	-21.9%
April	3,079	2,743	-10.9%
May	1,652	900	-45.5%
June	932	757	-18.8%
July	620	878	+41.6%
August	698	582	-16.6%
Jan-Aug Total	17,042	13,442	-21.1%

Palm Springs suffered substantial declines from the beginning of the year. January, February and March were each more than 20% below their corresponding 2025 levels.

May was particularly weak. Traffic fell from 1,652 passengers to only 900, a decline of 45.5%.

Then July delivered an eye-catching 41.6% increase.

That percentage requires context. Passenger numbers increased from only 620 to 878, meaning the gain amounted to 258 travellers. Because Palm Springs operates from a much smaller passenger base, relatively modest numerical changes can generate very large percentage movements.

August subsequently fell 16.6%, indicating that July had not yet developed into a sustained turnaround.

Palm Springs should therefore be viewed differently from San Francisco and Los Angeles. It is a smaller and much more seasonal market, and percentage changes can appear dramatic because the underlying passenger totals are limited.

Its 2026 performance nevertheless matters. The city is still feeding U.S. travellers into Canada’s tourism market, but at a considerably lower level than during the first eight months of 2025.

Four California Cities Send More Than 570,000 US Travellers Towards Canada

Combining the four cities illustrates the scale of California’s role.

California to Canada U.S. Citizen-Originating Traffic

California City	Jan-Aug 2025	Jan-Aug 2026	YoY Change
San Francisco	269,762	270,045	+0.1%
Los Angeles	253,113	244,677	-3.3%
San Diego	49,646	42,565	-14.3%
Palm Springs	17,042	13,442	-21.1%
Combined	589,563	570,729	-3.2%

Together, San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego and Palm Springs generated 570,729 U.S. citizen-originating passengers during January-August 2026.

That is a substantial flow of travellers. But it was 18,834 passengers below the 589,563 recorded during the same period of 2025, leaving the combined market down approximately 3.2%.

The numbers therefore require careful language. These California cities remain major sources of travellers heading towards Canada, but the four markets collectively have not yet returned to year-on-year growth.

San Francisco Provides Stability While Los Angeles Provides Momentum

The deeper story becomes clearer when the markets are separated by role.

San Francisco provides stability. It is the only one of the four cities to finish January-August above its 2025 level, even if only marginally.

Los Angeles provides momentum. Its year-to-date total remains negative, but July and August show a potentially important change after six months of decline.

San Diego provides volume but remains under pressure. Its eight consecutive negative months make it the clearest example of sustained weakness among the larger markets.

Palm Springs remains the smallest and most volatile market. Its sharp percentage declines are significant, but they also reflect a considerably smaller and more seasonal passenger base.

This distinction matters when assessing California’s contribution to Canadian tourism. A single statewide narrative would miss what is happening beneath the surface.

Why the California Market Matters for Canada

California offers Canada a large pool of potential leisure, business and visiting-friends-and-relatives travellers. San Francisco and Los Angeles, in particular, produce passenger volumes large enough for relatively small percentage movements to translate into thousands of additional or lost travellers.

That is why the late-summer movement deserves attention.

Los Angeles added 1,056 more U.S. citizen-originating passengers in July 2026 than in July 2025, followed by an additional 1,198 in August. San Francisco added 116 passengers in July and 1,002 in August.

Together, San Francisco and Los Angeles generated 83,480 U.S. citizen-originating passengers in August 2026, compared with 81,280 in August 2025. That is an increase of about 2.7% across California’s two largest markets in this dataset.

This does not erase declines elsewhere. But it indicates that the biggest California gateways were moving positively as the summer progressed.

California’s Canada Tourism Story Is Splitting in Two

The first eight months of 2026 reveal two distinct trends.

At the top of the market, San Francisco is holding firm and Los Angeles is recovering.

Further down, San Diego and Palm Springs remain substantially weaker.

That split explains why the combined market is still down 3.2% despite improving results from the two biggest cities.

The strongest conclusion is therefore not that California-to-Canada travel is booming, nor that it is collapsing.

It is that California’s Canada travel market is undergoing an uneven adjustment.

San Francisco has demonstrated resilience throughout much of 2026. Los Angeles has finally emerged from six consecutive months of decline. San Diego has experienced eight straight negative months, while Palm Springs continues to struggle with a much smaller and highly seasonal market.

For Canadian tourism, the next stage will depend heavily on whether the improvement in California’s largest gateways continues. If San Francisco maintains its stability and Los Angeles extends its July-August recovery, their enormous passenger volumes could increasingly offset weakness from smaller California markets.

Through August, however, the evidence remains mixed: more than 570,000 U.S. citizen-originating passengers came from these four California gateways, but the combined total remained below 2025.

Canada is therefore receiving a powerful stream of travellers from California in 2026. The challenge is turning the emerging strength in San Francisco and Los Angeles into a broader recovery that reaches San Diego, Palm Springs and the rest of the California market.

San Francisco joins Los Angeles and more California cities as leading sources of Canada tourism in 2026, as strong passenger volumes continue despite eight straight months of decline in some regions, with major gateways showing resilience and recovery across the market.

In conclusion, San Francisco joins Los Angeles and more California cities as leading sources of Canada tourism in 2026, as strong passenger volumes from major gateways continue to support cross-border travel demand despite eight straight months of decline in some regions. While San Francisco has maintained resilience and Los Angeles has shown signs of recovery, San Diego and Palm Springs highlight the uneven performance across California, proving that the Canada tourism market is experiencing a varied recovery rather than a uniform trend.