Canadians travel overseas more than ever: StatsCan
Canadians made a record number of trips to overseas destinations and continued to travel frequently to the U.S. in the first months of this year while fewer Americans travelled north across the border, according to a first-quarter travel report issued by Statistics Canada on Wednesday.
The decline in travel from the U.S. to Canada reached its lowest first-quarter level in 10 years, the federal agency said. Americans made about 1.8 million trips to Canada between January and March of 2007, down 6.3 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2006.
Travel from overseas tourists also climbed to 663,000 overnight trips in the first quarter, up 7.2 per cent over the same period in 2006. Tourists from overseas countries spent about $930 million on overnight trips to Canada, with the greatest number of travellers coming from the United Kingdom and France.
Pump prices, passports don't deter Canadians from U.S. travel
Meanwhile, Canadians made about 3.7 million trips to the U.S. in this year's first quarter, up 4.8 per cent from the same period in 2006. Canadians made Florida the most popular destination with over a million overnight trips made.
| Top 5 U.S. destinations |
|---|
| 1. Florida |
| 2. New York |
| 3. California |
| 4. Washington |
| 5. Nevada |
| Source: Statistics Canada |
Despite rising pump prices, overnight trips from Canada to the U.S. increased to 1.8 million, up 5.6 per cent over the first quarter of the previous year.
The federal agency also noted new passport requirements did not deter Canadians from travelling to the U.S. by air, with plane trips increasing by 4.7 per cent over the previous year to 1.7 million — the highest first-quarter level ever observed.
Canadians spend record $3 billion on overseas travel
Canadians also made a record 2.5 million trips to overseas destinations and spent a record $3 billion during the first quarter of 2007.
Sun-seeking Canadians made Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Cuba the top three overseas destinations. Travel to Central America and the Caribbean also increased notably.
But Statistics Canada noted that travel to Europe fell 14.7 per cent between January and March 2007, compared with the same period in 2006. During this period, theloonie fell 9.5 per cent against the euro .