Travel between Canada and other countries, July 2012

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Travel to Canada declined 2.5% to 2.1 million trips in July compared with June, mostly because of a 2.8% decline in American visitors.

Same-day car trips by US residents to Canada fell 1.7% to 633,000 trips. Travel of one or more nights declined 3.9% to 952,000 trips, including a 4.2% decline in travel by car and a 3.3% decrease in travel by plane.

Residents of countries other than the United States made 377,000 trips to Canada in July, down 0.8% from June.

Residents of China made a record high 27,000 overnight trips to Canada, up 3.0% from June. Travel from China has grown steadily since the spring of 2010, to the point that it has overtaken Germany as the third largest overseas market for Canada behind the United Kingdom and France. Germany and Australia were fourth and fifth, respectively.

While the United Kingdom remains Canada's number one overseas market, the number of visitors from the country has been declining over the years. Residents of the United Kingdom made 54,000 trips to Canada in July, the second lowest level in nine years.

In the opposite direction, Canadian residents made 5.4 million trips abroad in July, down 0.9% from June. Most of these trips, 4.6 million, were to the United States, a 0.8% decrease.

Overnight travel to the United States fell 1.9% to 1.9 million trips in July. Overnight plane travel increased 1.0% to 652,000 trips, while overnight car travel fell 3.7% from the record high in June, to 1.1 million trips.

Same-day car trips by Canadians to the United States edged down 0.1% to 2.7 million trips.

Travel by Canadians to overseas countries fell 1.8% to 791,000 trips from the record high of 805,000 trips set in June.

Note to readers

Monthly data are seasonally adjusted. For more information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonal adjustment and identifying economic trends.

Travel data for NEXUS Highway, which is a program designed to expedite the border clearance process for low-risk, pre-approved travellers into Canada and the United States, are now included. Monthly data has been revised back to January 2010 to reflect this change.

Table 1

Travel between Canada and other countries – Seasonally adjusted

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

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

The July 2012 issue of International Travel: Advance Information, Vol. 28, no. 7 (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 Riley Brockington (613-951-2995; riley.brockington@statcan.gc.ca), Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics Division.