Thursday, July 19, 2007

Travel between Canada and other countries

Canadians set yet another record for travel to overseas countries, as travel to and from Canada rebounded in May.

Canadian residents took an estimated 606,000 trips to overseas countries in May. This is only the third month since record-keeping began in 1972 that the number of trips overseas by Canadians crossed the 600,000 mark. All three months occurred in 2007. (Unless otherwise specified, monthly data are seasonally adjusted.)

Overall, Canadians took nearly 4 million trips abroad, an increase of 0.7% over April.

Canadians took more than 3.3 million trips to the United States in May, an increase of 0.6% compared with the previous month. This included 1.9 million same-day car trips to the US, up 0.8% from April. Overnight travel by Canadian residents to the US rose 0.6% to nearly 1.4 million trips. Although the number of overnight plane trips declined 0.5% in May compared with April, overnight travel by car and by other modes of transportation both increased.

While trips by Canadian residents abroad increased, so did travel to Canada from abroad. There were 2.6 million trips to Canada in May, a 2.0% rise compared with April.

Although travel by overseas residents decreased 0.8% to 383,000 trips, American residents took 2.2 million trips to Canada in May, a 2.6% gain from the previous month.

Overnight travel from the United States rose 3.6% in May compared with April, as American residents took more than 1.1 million trips to Canada. Overnight plane travel increased 5.1%, while the number of overnight car trips rose 1.6% from the previous month. Overnight travel by other modes of transportation jumped 10.3% in May compared with April.

Americans took an estimated 966,000 same-day car trips to Canada in May, a 0.9% gain from April. Although this was the highest figure since January, it was also the fifth consecutive month during which the 1-million mark was not reached.

Travel from 7 of Canada's top 12 overseas markets was down in May compared with April. Among the top 12 markets, travel from Italy posted the largest decline, down 14.6%, while travel from South Korea recorded the largest increase, up 6.3%.

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

Definitions, data sources and methods: survey number 5005.

The May 2007 issue of International Travel, Advance Information, Vol. 23, no. 5 (66-001-PWE, free) is now available from the Publications module of our website.

For more information, contact Client Services (toll-free 1-800-307-3382; 613-951-9169; fax: 613-951-2909; cult.tourstats@statcan.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Frances Kremarik (613-951-4240; frances.kremarik@statcan.ca), Culture, Tourism and the Centre for Education Statistics.

Travel between Canada and other countries
	April 2007r	May 2007p	April to May 2007	May 2007p	May 2006 to May 2007
	Seasonally Adjusted			Unadjusted
	thousands		% change1	thousands	% change
Canadian trips abroad2	3,922	3,950	0.7	4,005	1.4
to the United States	3,324	3,344	0.6	3,460	0.3
to other countries	598	606	1.3	544	8.9
Same-day car trips to the United States	1,899	1,915	0.8	2,008	-2.4
Total trips, one or more nights	1,961	1,976	0.8	1,942	5.6
United States3	1,363	1,370	0.6	1,398	4.4
Car	790	798	1.0	769	4.0
Plane	475	473	-0.5	483	5.7
Other modes of transportation	97	99	2.6	145	2.2
Other countries4	598	606	1.3	544	8.9
Travel to Canada2	2,536	2,588	2.0	2,653	-7.4
from the United States	2,150	2,205	2.6	2,235	-8.8
from other countries	386	383	-0.8	418	1.0
Same-day car trips from the United States	958	966	0.9	980	-16.3
Total trips, one or more nights	1,470	1,507	2.5	1,534	-1.1
United States3	1,095	1,134	3.6	1,129	-1.8
Car	654	664	1.6	641	-1.7
Plane	313	329	5.1	329	-3.2
Other modes of transportation	128	142	10.3	159	1.0
Other countries4	375	373	-0.6	405	0.8
Travel to Canada: Top overseas markets, by country of origin5
United Kingdom	75	76	1.1	86	2.4
France	32	32	-0.4	26	-0.7
Japan	30	28	-8.6	29	-21.5
Germany	27	26	-3.7	33	-1.4
Mexico	20	21	4.3	19	19.9
Australia	20	20	-1.1	32	12.0
South Korea	17	18	6.3	18	7.7
China	13	14	5.7	13	5.8
Netherlands	10	11	5.7	13	1.9
India	9	9	-3.9	14	21.3
Hong Kong	9	9	-3.6	9	-7.5
Italy	9	8	-14.6	7	-0.4
r revised p preliminary 1. Percentage change is based on unrounded data. 2. Totals exceed the sum of "same-day car trips" and "total trips, one or more nights" because they include all of the same-day trips. 3. Estimates for the United States include counts of cars and buses, and estimated numbers for planes, trains, boats and other methods. 4. Figures for other countries exclude same-day entries by land only, via the United States . 5. Includes same-day and overnight trips.

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