Characteristics of international overnight travellers, second quarter 2012

View the most recent version.

PDF version

Previous release

Among main trips categories, overnight business travel to Canada by overseas travellers recorded the largest year-over-year decrease with an 8.2% decline in the second quarter, while pleasure travel was down 3.9%.

The top three overseas countries of origin—the United Kingdom, France and Germany—recorded declines in overnight travel to Canada. At the same time, the fourth most important overseas market, China, recorded a 21.9% increase in overnight trips to Canada.

Overnight pleasure travel, the largest trip category for visitors from the United States, increased 3.8% to 1.7 million trips. Trips to visit friends and relatives, however, recorded the largest increase, 7.1%. At the same time, business travel decreased 0.9%.

New York, Washington and Michigan remained the top three states of origin for trips to Canada.

Canadian overnight business travel to the United States rose 6.6% in the second quarter. This was the fifth straight quarter that business travel rose on a year-over-year basis.

Pleasure travel to the United States increased 5.9%, while overnight travel to visit friends and relatives was down 3.1%. Canadian residents took 3.5 million overnight pleasure trips, representing 65.6% of all overnight travel to the U.S.

Canadians took 1.5 million overnight pleasure trips to overseas countries. This was the primary reason for travel, and represented nearly 70% of all overnight travel to overseas countries. Overall, the top three destinations were Cuba, the United Kingdom and Mexico.