Travel between Canada and other countries

Travel to Canada from the United States hit a record low in January, bringing down overall travel to its lowest level on record.

In total, travellers made an estimated 2,375,000 trips to Canada in January, a 1.4% decline from December and a record low since record-keeping began in 1972. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted.)

This decline occurred even though overnight travel to Canada from overseas countries reached a record high of 391,000 trips, up 0.7% compared with December. Slower travel from the United States more than offset this increase.

The number of trips to Canada from the United States failed to reach the 2-million mark for the first time on record. US residents took an estimated 1.97 million trips to Canada in January, down 1.7% from December 2007.

Same-day car travel from the United States hit a record low estimated at 794,000 trips, down 1.2% from December. This was the first time ever that same-day car travel failed to reach the 800,000 mark. In addition, overnight trips to Canada from the United States fell 1.8%.

Even though overnight travel to Canada from overseas countries reached a record high, only 5 of Canada's top 12 overseas markets recorded increases from December. Among these markets, travel from Mexico recorded the largest increase (+9.3%), while travel from Japan posted the largest decline (-7.0%).

On an outbound basis, Canadian residents took 4.4 million trips outside the country in January, down 0.2% from December.

Of these, an estimated 653,000 were to overseas countries, down 0.5% from December 2007. December was a record month for travel to overseas destinations.

Canadian residents took an estimated 3.8 million trips to the United States in January, down 0.2% from December. Same-day car travel to the United States edged down 0.2% to 2.1 million trips, while overnight travel south of the border also slipped 0.2% and overnight travel by car fell 1.1%.

However, Canadians made an estimated 525,000 overnight trips by plane to the United States, a 3.2% increase and a new record high.

The average monthly value of the Canadian dollar in January was 98.9 US cents, down 0.8% from December. The dollar also dropped against the euro and the yen in January from December, but gained against the British pound.

Note: Seasonally adjusted data have been revised back to January 2005.

Revisions have been made to some non-seasonally adjusted series for each month of the second and third quarters of 2007.

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

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.

The January 2008 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 24, no. 1 (66-001-PWE, free) is now available from the Publications module of our website.

For general information, contact Client Services (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 Frances Kremarik (613-951-4240; frances.kremarik@statcan.gc.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.

Table(s).