Characteristics of international overnight travellers

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First quarter 2011 (preliminary) (Previous release)

Business travel between Canada and the United States fell in both directions during the first quarter. In contrast, business travel between Canada and overseas countries rose in both directions.

American residents took 1.5% fewer business trips to Canada in the first quarter, but spent $332 million while they were here, up 8.6% from the same quarter a year earlier.

Americans took 621,000 trips to Canada for pleasure, down 8.1% from the first quarter of 2010. Pleasure trips account for most of the travel between Canada and the United States.

Overnight car travel by United States residents to Canada declined 7.3%, while overnight travel by plane increased 1.8%. Car travel accounted for 54.9% of all overnight trips by US residents to Canada.

Washington, New York and Michigan remained the top three states of origin during the first quarter. Residents of these states took 621,000 overnight trips and spent $212 million in Canada during the first quarter. This was 5.1% fewer visits and 6.3% less spending compared with the same quarter of 2010.

Overseas residents took 11.1% more trips to Canada for business in the first quarter, spending $211 million here in the process.

In addition, overseas residents took 193,000 trips to visit friends and relatives, down 17.2% from the first quarter of 2010. Despite this decline, visiting friends and relatives was still the prime reason for coming to Canada for overseas residents.

The United Kingdom, France, and Australia were the top overseas countries of origin for tourists to Canada in the first quarter.

Canadian residents took nearly 3.0 million pleasure trips to the United States, up 7.7% from the first quarter of 2010. However, business travel by Canadians to the United States fell 3.3%.

Overnight car travel by Canadian residents to the United States rose 3.6%, while overnight travel by plane increased 8.2%.

Florida, New York and Washington were the top three states for overnight visits by Canadian residents during the first quarter. Canadian residents took 1.3 million overnight visits to Florida, spending $1.4 billion. Visits by Canadian residents to each of the top 10 destination states increased in the first quarter.

Travel for pleasure remained the prime reason for travel to overseas countries, accounting for 81.9% of all overseas travel. Canadian residents took nearly 2.5 million overnight trips for pleasure and spent more than $2.6 billion overseas in the first quarter, up 5.9% and 4.0% respectively from the same period in 2010.

Canadian residents also took 2.2% more business trips and 19.3% more trips to visit friends and relatives to overseas countries.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 3152.

This release summarises data now available from the International Travel Survey. Tables, various statistical profiles and micro-data files of characteristics of international travellers using the preliminary first quarter 2011 data are now available on request.

Data on characteristics of international overnight travellers for the second quarter will be released on November 24.

To obtain one or more of these products, 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 Frances Kremarik (613-951-4240; fax: 613-951-2909; frances.kremarik@statcan.gc.ca), Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Division.