Travel between Canada and other countries

While Canadian residents set a new record for trips to overseas countries in February, same-day car travel from the United States fell to its lowest monthly level on record.

A record high 547,000 Canadians travelled to overseas countries. This represented a 1.5% gain from January, the third consecutive monthly increase. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted whereas exchange rates are not).

Same-day car travel from the United States to Canada dropped to its lowest level on record in February, falling below the 1.2 million mark for the first time ever.

In addition, the estimated 1.1 million overnight trips taken by American residents to Canada was the lowest monthly level in almost nine years. Overall, only 2.4 million American residents took trips to Canada in February, down 2.3% from the month before and the lowest month on record since May 1979.

The Canadian dollar was worth 87.0 US cents on average in February, up 0.7% compared to January. The loonie also gained against the euro, British pound sterling and Japanese yen.

Canadians made fewer than 3.2 million trips to the United States during February, down 7.1% from January.

The number of same-day car trips by Canadians fell 8.0% to just under 1.9 million, the lowest level since June last year. In addition, they made fewer than 1.3 million trips of one night or more, a 5.7% decline.

Although Canadians travelled overseas in record numbers, the same could not be said for overseas visitors to Canada. The number of visitors from overseas countries to Canada dropped 3.3% to about 369,000, its lowest level in over a year.

Travel from 9 of Canada's top 12 overseas markets fell in February, the largest decline (-9.0%) recorded by Mexico. Travel from the biggest market, the United Kingdom, was down 6.5%.

However, the number of visitors from Hong Kong rose 9.3%, the largest gain among Canada's most important overseas markets.

Available on CANSIM: tables 427-0001 to 427-0006.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.

The February 2006 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 22, no. 2 (66-001-PIE, $7/$59) is now available.

For general information, contact Client Services (1-800-307-3382; 613-951-7608; fax: 613-951-2909; cult.tourstats@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Frances Kremarik (613-951-4240; frances.kremarik@statcan.gc.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.