International visits to Canada jumped in April: StatsCan

Visitors from places other than the United States came flocking back to Canada in April, Statistics Canada reported Thursday.

A year after the SARS crisis cut international travel to a fraction of its former levels, the number of international trips to Canada increased by 70,000 or 19.6 per cent to 313,000 in April, compared with April 2003.

There was a much smaller gain in visits from the U.S., which accounts for more than 90 per cent of all trips to Canada. U.S. visits in April were up 4.4 per cent to 2.9 million.

Combining U.S. and other visitors, total travel to Canada was up 5.7 per cent, while Canadians' travel abroad jumped 22.8 per cent to 3.56 million trips.

The U.S. is the main destination for Canadians, accounting for 86 per cent of the trips in April.

Travel both ways falls from March

Compared with March, the agency said Canadians' trips abroad in April fell by 1.4 per cent to 3.56 million, while foreign visits to Canada were down 0.9 per cent to 3.22 million visits.

The decline in visits to Canada was completely the result of the drop in U.S. traffic. International trips rose 5 per cent, but trips from the U.S. fell 1.5 per cent.