International travel account

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Canada's international travel deficit declined during the first three months to $2.9 billion, largely as the result of an increase in spending by overseas travellers in Canada. Canada recorded the largest decrease in the deficit since the first quarter of 2004.

The travel deficit fell by $267 million from the previous quarter to $2.9 billion in the first quarter. This was likely due to the 21st Winter Olympics hosted by Vancouver in February. Although there was a slight increase in spending by US travellers, it was overseas travellers to Canada who provided the lion's share of inbound spending.

Overseas travellers boosted spending by 8.3%, injecting $2.3 billion dollars into Canada's economy, the largest increase since the first quarter of 2004.

In turn, Canadian travellers spent almost $3.0 billion in overseas countries, a slight increase of 0.7% from the previous quarter. In contrast, Canadian travellers to the United States decreased their spending by 2.3%.

Increase in quarterly spending by US travellers in Canada

US residents took 2.9 million overnight trips to Canada in the first quarter, up 1.6% from the fourth quarter of 2009.

United States travellers spent almost $1.8 billion in Canada in the first quarter, up 1.0% from the previous quarter. This was the largest percentage increase since the third quarter of 2008. Since that time, spending by American travellers in Canada including the first quarter of 2010 has fallen by 9.3%.

Despite the low spending by American residents in Canada, the travel deficit with the United States declined to $2.3 billion in the first quarter from $2.4 billion the previous quarter.

Canadians spent $4.0 billion across the border in the first quarter compared with $4.1 billion the previous quarter. This was despite an increase of 4.3% in overnight trips to the United States.

Overseas countries contribute to the reduction of Canada's overseas deficit

Canada's travel deficit with overseas countries fell to $641 million in the first quarter, the lowest it has been since the third quarter of 2006. This was a decrease of $156 million from the fourth quarter of 2009. The drop was a result of an increase in spending by overseas travellers in Canada.

Overseas travellers to Canada spent $2.3 billion in the first quarter, up 8.3% from the fourth quarter of 2009. Spending by travellers from overseas countries in Canada has hovered around $2.1 billion for the past year.

The increase in spending can be attributed to the increase in trips from overseas countries to Canada. In the first quarter, Canada played host to over a million overnight trips from overseas countries. There was a 5.8% increase in the number of overnight trips from countries other than the United States, reaching 1.1 million trips to Canada within the first three months of this year.

Meanwhile, Canadians decreased their overseas trips by 1.3% to 2.0 million overnight trips in the first quarter.

Despite fewer trips to overseas countries, Canadian travellers spent $3.0 billion in overseas countries in the first quarter, up 0.7% over the previous quarter.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey numbers, including related surveys, 3152 and 5005.

The international travel account for the second quarter will be released on August 27.

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods and data quality of this release, contact Beverly Tennant (613-951-6261; beverly.tennant@statcan.gc.ca) or Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-9169; fax: 613-951-2909; tourism@statcan.gc.ca), Tourism and Centre for Education Statistics Division.