Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, April 2022
Archived Content
Information identified as archived is provided for reference, research or recordkeeping purposes. It is not subject to the Government of Canada Web Standards and has not been altered or updated since it was archived. Please "contact us" to request a format other than those available.
Released: 2022-07-05
Highlights
In April, overall tourism activity in Canada was 24.3% below the level reached in April 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. Tourism activity as a whole has steadily improved since May 2021, except for a temporary pause in January 2022 due to the Omicron variant and renewed restrictions.
With further easing of travel restrictions in April, both domestic and inbound travel contributed to the overall tourism recovery across the country, resulting in the highest level since the onset of the pandemic.
Visit the Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker visualization tool to interact with the data.
Border restrictions continue to ease
As of April 1, 2022, fully vaccinated travellers were no longer required to provide a negative pre-entry COVID-19 test result to enter Canada by air, land, or water. However, fully vaccinated travellers arriving in Canada from any country could still be randomly selected to take a COVID-19 molecular test on arrival.
As of April 25, 2022, partially vaccinated or unvaccinated children aged 5 to 11 accompanied by a fully vaccinated adult were no longer required to complete a pre-entry COVID-19 test for entry into the country. As of this same date, travellers were no longer required to provide a quarantine plan upon entry.
A preview of how easing restrictions have subsequently impacted Canadian tourism can be found in May's Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada.
Tourism activity continues to improve
In 2021, overall tourism activity steadily increased from May onward, ending in December at 29.1% below its pre-pandemic level. In January 2022 however, overall tourism activity fell back to 43.4% below its pre-pandemic level due to renewed COVID-19 restrictions. By February however, activity was back on track to recovery and, in April, reached 24.3% below its 2019 pre-pandemic level, the best monthly recovery in two years since the start of the pandemic.
Compared with the April 2019 pre-pandemic, both domestic and inbound tourism improved in April 2022. Domestic activity (i.e., from Canadians travelling within Canada) was down 13.0% while inbound activity (i.e., from international visitors) was down by 47.7%.
Indeed, this recovery in tourism activity is reflected by payroll employment in the accommodation and food services sector, up by 34,500 in April with employers seeking to fill an additional 153,000 vacant positions during the month. At 11.9%, the job vacancy rate in this sector remains the highest in the economy.
Chart 1
Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, December 2019 to April 2022
Provinces recover both domestic and inbound activity
Increased domestic tourism activity was felt across many provinces in April, with British Columbia 5.8% below the level seen in April 2019, before the pandemic. All provinces have recovered at least 80% of their pre-pandemic domestic tourism activity from April 2019.
Furthermore, inbound tourism activity increased in all Canadian provinces during April 2022 with several having recovered at least 50% of their pre-pandemic tourism activity for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. April 2022 was the first month that Quebec, Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario achieved the milestone of recovering more than half of their inbound tourism activity as compared with the same month in 2019.
This improvement in inbound activity stems from the almost quarter-million (241,700) overseas visitors arriving in Canada during April 2022.
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).
- Date modified: