Travel between Canada and other countries

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Travel by Canadian residents abroad reached 5.0 million trips in July, down 0.4% compared with June. At the same time, residents from abroad took 2.0 million trips to Canada, also down 0.4%.

Canadian residents took 1.8 million overnight trips to the United States in July, up 2.2% compared with the previous month. This was the highest level recorded since record keeping began in 1972.

Overnight travel by Canadians to the United States was up in all transportation modes. Overnight plane travel increased 2.8% to its highest level since record keeping began in 1972.

Overnight travel by car (+1.8%) also rose. The increase in overnight travel was offset by a 2.0% decrease in same-day car travel by Canadian residents to the United States.

The number of overnight trips by Canadian residents to overseas countries reached 751,000 in July, a decrease of 1.7% compared with June.

In the other direction, travel by US residents to Canada was down 0.5% to 1.6 million trips in July. American residents took 593,000 same-day car trips in July, virtually unchanged (+0.1%) compared with the previous month.

Overnight travel by Americans to Canada decreased 1.2% to 966,000 trips. The number of overnight plane trips decreased 1.9%, while overnight car travel recorded a slight increase of 0.3%.

Overseas residents took 378,000 trips to Canada in July, down 0.2%.

Of the top 12 overseas markets, 7 recorded declines in July. The largest decrease was recorded by residents of Germany (-8.0%) while the strongest increase was recorded by residents of Japan (+12.4%).

Note: Monthly data are seasonally adjusted. All seasonally adjusted data have been revised back to January 2010. Revisions have been made to some non-seasonally adjusted series for each month of the fourth quarter of 2010 and the first quarter of 2011.

NEXUS travel data (for both land and sea) are not included.

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

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.

The July 2011 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 27, no. 7 (66-001-P, free), is now available from the Key resource module of our website under Publications.

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, please contact Frances Kremarik (613-951-4240; frances.kremarik@statcan.gc.ca), Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Division.