Travel between Canada and other countries

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Canadian travel abroad increased across the board in November, with significant gains in overnight car travel to the United States.

Canadian residents made a record 2.4 million overnight trips outside the country in November, up 7.6% from the previous high recorded in October. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted.)

Higher car travel south of the border contributed the most to the record setting pace, as Canadians took 1.1 million overnight car trips to the United States in November, a significant 16.2% increase from October and the highest level in over 15 years.

Since the end of 2006, overnight car travel to the United States has gone up 43.6%. The rising Canadian dollar and the extensive media coverage it generated likely contributed to the increase in overnight car trips. The loonie averaged US $1.03 in November, compared with US $0.87 in December 2006.

Meanwhile, overnight plane travel to the United States climbed to its second highest level ever in November, up 0.2% to 502,000 trips. Overnight travel by other modes of transportation edged up 0.1%.

Overall, overnight travel to the United States jumped 10.0% to 1.8 million trips, the highest since the end of 1991. Same-day car travel to the United States had a more modest increase, climbing 2.7% to 2.3 million trips.

For the seventh consecutive month, Canadian travel overseas set a new high. Canadians took 657,000 trips to non-US destinations in November, a 1.8% increase from October.

All in all, Canadians travelled abroad more in November than at any other time in the last decade. Travel abroad reached 4.8 million trips in November, 5.0% more than October and 17.4% higher than at the end of 2006.

Inbound, overnight travel from the United States fell 1.9% to 1.1 million trips in November. Overnight car travel slipped 1.5% to 679,000 trips, while overnight trips by plane and other modes of transportation fell 2.1% and 3.7% respectively.

Same-day car travel from the United States was the hardest hit, dropping 6.3% to 824,000 trips, the lowest level since record keeping started in 1972.

Overnight and same-day car travel from the United States have taken different paths since recording sharp declines at the beginning of 2007. Since February 2007, overnight car travel from the United States has increased 7.6%, with gains in seven of the last nine months. Same-day car travel, however, is down each of the last five months and has fallen 10.2% since February.

This suggests that same-day car travel from the United States may be more vulnerable to external factors predominant in 2007, such as the rising cost of gasoline, the uncertainty surrounding the US economy and the faltering US greenback.

Travel from overseas countries reached its highest level in over three years in November, as residents of countries other than the United States made 401,000 trips to Canada, up 4.6% from October.

Overall, 10 of Canada's 12 most important overseas markets had increases in travel in November, with Mexico and Switzerland posting gains of 13.6% and 10.1% respectively. Travel from the United Kingdom, Canada's most important non-US market, slipped 1.8% to 78,000 trips.

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

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.

The November 2007 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 23, no. 11 (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; tourism@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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