Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, February 2022
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Released: 2022-05-06
Highlights
In February, overall tourism activity in Canada was 37.2% below the level reached in February 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. This was in line with the seven-month trend of consecutive improvement observed from May to December 2021, excluding January 2022 when overall recovery temporarily slowed.
Although certain restrictions to combat the Omicron variant remained in place throughout most of February, both domestic and inbound travel increased, aiding overall tourism recovery across the country.
Visit the Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker visualization tool to interact with the data.
Border restrictions continue
In late 2021, in response to the Omicron variant, the Government of Canada advised Canadians to avoid non-essential travel outside Canada and, effective December 21, 2021, all travellers entering Canada had to provide a negative COVID-19 molecular test for entry.
In mid-February 2022, the Canadian government announced a phased easing of travel requirements that took effect at the end of that month. While these changes are not reflected in the February data, the impact can be seen in the March leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada.
Overall activity improves in February
Since dipping to 68.5% below its pre-pandemic level in May 2021, overall tourism activity in Canada had steadily improved each month during 2021, ending the year in December at 29.1% below its December 2019 benchmark. However, in January 2022, overall tourism activity fell back to 43.4% below its pre-pandemic level, likely from a delay in provincial re-opening plans and renewed restrictions amidst an increase in COVID-19 infections.
In February 2022, overall tourism activity was 37.2% below its pre-pandemic level, suggesting that January's setback was temporary. Both domestic and inbound tourism improved, with domestic activity (i.e., from Canadians travelling within Canada) down 26.4%, and inbound activity (i.e., from international visitors) down 66.7% from the same month in 2019, before the pandemic.
In fact, gross domestic product in February reported the largest monthly increase in almost a year, with strong growth coming from the accommodation and food services; transportation and warehousing; and arts, entertainment and recreation sectors.
Chart 1
Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, December 2019 to February 2022
Tourism activity increases in most provinces
In February, while improvement in domestic activity was felt across all provinces, stronger recovery was observed for Quebec and British Columbia. These two provinces, along with Newfoundland and Labrador and Saskatchewan, have recovered more than three-quarters of their pre-pandemic domestic tourism activity from February 2019.
The 105,000 overseas visitors arriving in Canada in February helped to bolster inbound activity more in some provinces, particularly in Alberta and British Columbia.
Note to readers
The Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker is part of a shift at Statistics Canada from measuring the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic to assessing the recovery. The tracker combines data from multiple sources, including counts of international travellers, domestic and international commercial aircraft and surface movements, as well as hotel occupancy rates and restaurant sales.
When combining these data sources, each series is first normalized using a ratio method that removes seasonality and allows comparison with the same month from the 2019 base. Then weights are used to combine these normalized values into a single estimate for a given month and geography. The weights are determined based on the data series correlation with overall tourism; the higher the correlation, the larger the weight.
The domestic tourism value is calculated using domestic-related data, while the inbound value uses international-related sources. The two values are combined proportionately based on pre-pandemic National Travel Survey and Visitor Travel Survey data, with the level set to zero for each month in the 2019 base year. For a given month in subsequent years, a tracker value above zero indicates that tourism activity is greater than the 2019 base, while a value below zero indicates the opposite.
As an experimental product, caution is warranted when interpreting these estimates. As such, tracker estimates should be viewed as preliminary and are subject to revision. With more data sources being considered along with new methods, this may entail the need for further revisions.
Products
The product "Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker," part of the Data Visualization Products series (71-607-X), is now available.
Contact information
For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).
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