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Canadians took nearly 3.2 million trips to the United States in December, down 4.0% from November. Of these, just under 1.7 million were same-day car trips, which were down 4.2%.
The number of overnight car trips to the United States fell 6.4%, while overnight trips to the United States by plane increased by 0.8%.
Canadians made 739,000 trips to countries other than the United States in December, up 4.4% from November.
Meanwhile, American residents took 726,000 same-day car trips to Canada in December, a 2.8% decline. This was the ninth monthly decline of 2008 and the lowest level ever.
American residents also took 652,000 overnight car trips to Canada in December, a 3.4% increase from November. Overnight plane trips to Canada from the United States increased 4.4% to 309,000.
Trips to Canada from overseas countries increased 0.8% in December. This was due in large part to a 34.8% rebound in the number of trips from Japan, which followed a 23.8% drop the previous month.
Canadian travel abroad was generally higher in 2008 than it was the year before. Canadians made more than 51.7 million trips abroad last year, a 3.4% increase. Canadian residents made 2.3% more trips to the United States in 2008 while the number of trips to other countries increased by 9.7% compared with 2007.
Americans made 12.0% fewer trips to Canada in 2008. Same-day car travel has been on a downward trend since peaking in 1999. In 2008, the volume of same-day car traffic from the United States (9.1 million) was one-third the level of 1999 and the lowest annual level since records were first kept in 1972.
Travel to Canada from countries other than the United States was up 1.8%. However, travel to Canada from the United States was down in almost every category.
Available on CANSIM: tables 427-0001 to 427-0006.
Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.
The December 2008 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 24, no. 12 (66-001-PWE, free), is now available from the Publications module of our website.
For more 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 Paul Durk (613-951-5859; paul.durk@statcan.gc.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.
Table 1
| December 2007r | November 2008r | December 2008p | 2008p | November to December 2008 | 2007 to 2008 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Seasonally adjusted | Unadjusted | |||||
| thousands | % change1 | |||||
| Canadian trips abroad2 | 4,423 | 4,036 | 3,934 | 51,737 | -2.5 | 3.4 |
| To the United States | 3,767 | 3,329 | 3,195 | 43,613 | -4.0 | 2.3 |
| To other countries | 656 | 708 | 739 | 8,124 | 4.4 | 9.7 |
| Same-day car trips to the United States | 2,110 | 1,760 | 1,686 | 24,049 | -4.2 | -0.7 |
| Total trips, one or more nights | 2,263 | 2,227 | 2,203 | 27,049 | -1.1 | 7.5 |
| United States3 | 1,607 | 1,519 | 1,464 | 18,925 | -3.6 | 6.6 |
| Car | 980 | 901 | 843 | 11,341 | -6.4 | 6.9 |
| Plane | 514 | 516 | 520 | 6,358 | 0.8 | 8.1 |
| Other modes of transportation | 114 | 102 | 101 | 1,226 | -1.4 | -3.4 |
| Other countries4 | 656 | 708 | 739 | 8,124 | 4.4 | 9.7 |
| Travel to Canada2 | 2,396 | 2,260 | 2,275 | 27,370 | 0.7 | -9.9 |
| From the United States | 1,997 | 1,881 | 1,893 | 22,606 | 0.7 | -12.0 |
| From other countries | 399 | 379 | 382 | 4,764 | 0.8 | 1.8 |
| Same-day car trips from the United States | 802 | 747 | 726 | 9,103 | -2.8 | -18.5 |
| Total trips, one or more nights | 1,489 | 1,415 | 1,453 | 17,089 | 2.6 | -4.7 |
| United States3 | 1,102 | 1,046 | 1,080 | 12,451 | 3.2 | -6.9 |
| Car | 658 | 630 | 652 | 7,367 | 3.4 | -7.5 |
| Plane | 306 | 296 | 309 | 3,590 | 4.4 | -5.0 |
| Other modes of transportation | 138 | 119 | 119 | 1,495 | -0.4 | -8.5 |
| Other countries4 | 387 | 370 | 373 | 4,638 | 0.9 | 1.7 |
| Travel to Canada: Top overseas markets, by country of origin5 | ||||||
| United Kingdom | 76 | 71 | 69 | 870 | -1.8 | -6.0 |
| France | 33 | 34 | 34 | 425 | -0.6 | 12.2 |
| Germany | 27 | 28 | 28 | 332 | 0.5 | 4.4 |
| Japan | 27 | 17 | 24 | 287 | 34.8 | -16.4 |
| Mexico | 22 | 22 | 21 | 271 | -2.9 | 8.1 |
| Australia | 20 | 21 | 20 | 249 | -6.1 | 8.7 |
| China | 14 | 13 | 14 | 166 | 5.9 | 6.5 |
| South Korea | 19 | 14 | 13 | 197 | -7.0 | -7.5 |
| Hong Kong | 11 | 11 | 11 | 132 | -3.4 | 14.6 |
| India | 9 | 10 | 10 | 115 | 2.1 | 9.3 |
| Netherlands | 10 | 9 | 9 | 124 | -1.0 | -0.5 |
| Italy | 9 | 8 | 8 | 106 | 4.1 | 3.7 |
