Travel between Canada and other countries, April 2012

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Travel to Canada from abroad rose 0.8% to over 2.1 million trips in April. This was entirely the result of more trips from the United States as travel to Canada from overseas countries declined.

Overnight travel from the United States rose 2.7% from March to 1.0 million trips. Overnight plane travel recorded the largest increase, 3.9%, as US residents took 310,000 overnight plane trips in April. This was the highest level recorded since May 2008.

US residents took 657,000 same-day car trips in April, a 0.6% increase from March.

While travel to Canada from the United States increased 1.9%, travel from overseas countries declined 4.2%, following a four-year high in March.

Of the top overseas markets, eight recorded declines in April. Travel from Japan declined 16.5%, the largest decrease recorded among Canada's top overseas markets. Travel from South Korea to Canada was also down, decreasing 6.2% to its lowest level since May 2003, when the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome outbreak was at its peak.

Canadian travel abroad declined 0.5% to 5.4 million trips in April, the result of fewer trips to the United States.

Canadian residents made 1.8 million overnight trips to the United States in April, a 1.8% decline. The largest decrease was in overnight car travel, which decreased 2.1% compared with March.

Same-day car travel to the United States was unchanged from the previous month at 2.7 million trips.

Canadians made 797,000 trips to overseas countries in April, a 0.8% increase from March.

Note to readers

NEXUS highway travel data are now included, and monthly data have been revised back to January 2011. All monthly data are seasonally adjusted.

Available without charge in CANSIM: tables CANSIM table427-0001 to 427-0006.

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number survey number5005.

The April 2012 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 28, no. 4 (Catalogue number66-001-P, free), is now available from the Key resource module of our website under Publications.

For more information, contact Statistics Canada's National Contact Centre (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 613-951-8116; infostats@statcan.gc.ca).

To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Analyst Frances Kremarik (613-951-4240; frances.kremarik@statcan.gc.ca), Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Division.