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Same-day car travel from the United States leveled off in April, halting a series of seven consecutive monthly declines that started at the end of last summer.
Americans made an estimated 743,000 same-day car trips to Canada in April, virtually unchanged from March. However, this was about half the level it was four years ago, and about one-quarter of the record high set in March 1981. It has fallen 21.5% since August. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted.)
Overnight car travel from the United States has shown much more resiliency than same-day car travel. In April, overnight car travel rose 2.3% to 637,000 trips, the second consecutive monthly increase. It has slipped only 3.7% since last August.
In total, overnight travel from the United States edged up 1.0% to 1.1 million trips in April.
Travel to Canada was also up from overseas nations in April, as the number of trips by visitors from countries other than the United States climbed 4.6% to 407,000, the second highest level ever.
Despite the increase, travel from Asia slipped 1.9%, as the top-four Asian markets (Japan, South Korea, China and Hong Kong) all recorded declines. Residents of the United Kingdom, Canada's top overseas market, took 78,000 trips to Canada in April, up 5.3% from the previous month.
In the opposite direction, Canadian residents made fewer trips to both the United States and overseas countries in April.
Same-day car travel to the United States slipped 0.8% to 2.1 million trips, while Canadians made 954,000 overnight car trips to the United States, down 2.6% from March.
Overnight plane trips to the United States slipped to 547,000, down 1.0% from the record high in March. Overall, overnight travel to the United States fell 2.6% to 1.6 million trips, the lowest level since October.
Canadian travel to overseas countries amounted to 669,000 trips, down slightly from the record high set in March.
Available on CANSIM: tables 427-0001 to 427-0006.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.
The April 2008 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 24, no. 4 (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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