Travel between Canada and other countries

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Border crossings into Ontario by foreigners reached a low point in January, as heavy snowfalls, freezing rain and extreme cold advisories in Canada's most visited province likely kept United States travellers away.

Overall, travellers from the United States made an estimated 1.2 million trips to Canada through Ontario border crossings in January, a record low and a 15.3% drop from December. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted.)

While declines in the number of entries into Canada were recorded in all provinces, except British Columbia, none were nearly as significant as in Ontario. This suggests that exceptional events in Ontario during January, such as the unfavourable weather encountered, might be responsible for the decline in border crossings.

Although new passport requirements for air travel into the United States were implemented on January 23, it is not very likely that they were the principal reason for the drop in travel to Canada. Country-wide regulations such as this should have had a similar impact in each province.

Same-day car travel to Canada by United States residents fell to 961,000 trips, down 12.3% from the previous month. This was the first time since record-keeping started in 1972 that same-day car travel failed to reach 1.0 million trips.

Overnight travel to Canada by residents of the United States fell to its lowest level since the height of the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak in May 2003. Tourists from the United States made 1.1 million overnight trips to Canada in January, down 7.1% from the previous month.

Overnight car travel from the United States fell 7.7% to 664,000, while overnight travel by plane and other means of transportation fell 5.8% and 6.7%, respectively.

Travel from overseas countries also fell 0.9% to 387,000 trips. However, travel from the United Kingdom, Canada's most important overseas market, edged up 0.4% to 74,000 trips. Among the top 12 overseas markets, Australia recorded the largest decline (-5.4%) while travel from India jumped 7.4%.

In the opposite direction, Canadian residents made 2.0 million same-day car trips to the United States in January, down 2.6% from the previous month.

However, overnight travel to the United States by Canadians increased to 1.4 million trips, up 3.2% and the highest level in over 13 years.

Overnight car travel to the United States jumped 5.8% to 838,000 trips, its highest level in over a decade. Overnight travel by plane edged up 1.8% while travel by other means of transportation fell 10.8%.

Travel to overseas countries continued its upward trend in January, as Canadian residents made a record 609,000 trips to non-US destinations, a 1.6% increase from December.

The Canadian dollar fell 2.0% to 85.0 US cents in January, its lowest level in more than a year. The loonie also fell against the British pound sterling and the euro, but edged up against the Japanese yen.

Note: Seasonally adjusted data have been revised back to January 2004.

Same-day and overnight data for United States residents entering by commercial plane, train, commercial boat or other methods (for example, by foot or motorcycle) and any summation of these not seasonally adjusted series have been revised for each month of the first and second quarter of 2006.

Same-day and overnight data for Canadian residents returning from the United States by commercial plane, private plane, train, commercial boat or other methods (for example, by foot or motorcycle) and any summation of these not seasonally adjusted series have been revised for each month of the first and second quarter of 2006.

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

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.

The January 2007 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 23, no. 1 (66-001-PWE, free) is now available from the Publications module of our website.

For general information, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-9169; fax: 613-951-2909; cult.tourstats@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Eric Desjardins (613-951-1781; eric.desjardins@statcan.gc.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.

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