Canadians who have turned away from vacations in the United States are showing up in Costa Rica in record numbers, and they are staying long enough to change the math of our tourism economy. Figures from the Costa Rican Tourism Institute (ICT) show 232,949 Canadians arrived in the first eight months of 2026, up from 187,781 in the same period last year. That is a 24.1% increase and the fastest growth of any major market.
Canada’s share of all visitors climbed from 9% to 10.6%. Arrivals from the United States, which still supplies well over half of all tourists, rose just 2.7% over the same months. What’s driving it is no mystery as Canadian travel to the United States has fallen sharply since early 2025 amid trade disputes and political tension between the two countries, and the winter travelers who once filled Florida condos have been looking elsewhere.
Connie Salazar, executive director of the tourism promotion group Proimagen has said Canadians who favored the Florida coast no longer want to go there and that Costa Rica has proven a natural fit with its beaches, nature and wellness offerings. Costa Rica moved quickly to catch that demand. The ICT’s air connectivity team spotted the opening as Canadian traffic to the United States and parts of the Caribbean dropped, then traveled to Canada with airport authorities to pitch the airlines directly.
Carriers responded with more frequencies and new routes. Air Canada, WestJet, Air Transat and Porter now all fly here and Air Transat and Porter have converted seasonal flights into year-round service. In December Air Canada will launch a Vancouver-Liberia route, Air Transat will connect Quebec City with San José and Porter will add four weekly flights between Toronto and Juan SantamarÃa International Airport. By high season travelers will be able to fly nonstop from seven Canadian cities.
What makes this market so valuable is not only how many Canadians come but how long they stay. ICT data show the average Canadian visitor spends 14.9 nights in the country and about $203 (â‚¡93,000) per day. That works out to roughly $3,000 (â‚¡1.4 million) per person per trip. Applied to the 45,000 additional Canadians who arrived through August, the growth alone represents something on the order of $135 million (â‚¡62 billion) in new spending. It is a rough estimate, but it shows the scale.
A visitor who stays two weeks or more behaves differently from one on a five-day resort package. Long-stay travelers rent houses and condos, shop at local supermarkets and ferias, hire guides, eat at neighborhood sodas and move around the country. Their money reaches small businesses and communities that rarely see the short-stay crowd. Many are retirees and remote workers escaping the northern winter, and the rules favor them, since Canadians can remain in Costa Rica for up to 180 days as tourists.
Some of those who return year after year go on to rent long term, buy property or apply for residency, which carries the benefit well beyond hotels and tours. The gains so far are concentrated in Guanacaste. Daniel Oduber Quirós International Airport in Liberia received 71% of all Canadian air arrivals in the first four months of the year, a 32% jump over 2025, and Canadians now account for roughly 26% of tourist arrivals there.
Hotels, vacation rentals, restaurants and tour operators along the northern Pacific coast are the most direct beneficiaries. The challenge for the rest of Costa rica is to draw those long stays south and inland. There is also a strategic benefit since with Americans making up close to six of every 10 visitors, Costa Rica’s tourism business has long been exposed to a downturn in a single market. A growing Canadian base, along with steady gains from Europe, spreads that risk.
Canadian demand remains weighted toward the winter months, though the move to year-round flights by two carriers suggests that is starting to change. Tourism officials are not yet declaring victory as air arrivals slowed in June, which the ICT attributed to geopolitical tension and higher jet fuel costs and the institute has said it is watching the second half of the year with caution.
The strong colón, trading near ₡460 to the dollar, makes Costa Rica a more expensive destination than it was a few years ago, a cost that weighs on visitors who earn Canadian dollars. And part of the current surge depends on a political mood in Canada that could shift. For now the trend favors Costa Rica with airlines are adding seats rather than cutting them and the ICT has stepped up promotion in Toronto, Montreal and other cities.
First time visitors to Costa Rica during a winter away from Florida may keep coming back even if relations with Washington improve. If they do, those who arrived because of a boycott could become one of the steadiest sources of Costa Rican tourism.
