Characteristics of international overnight travellers, fourth quarter 2011 (preliminary data)

View the most recent version.

PDF version

Previous release

Canadian overnight business travel to both the United States and overseas destinations increased during the fourth quarter. Foreign business travellers, however, took fewer trips to Canada.

In total, Canadians made just over 807,000 overnight business trips outside the country in the fourth quarter, a 4.0% increase from the fourth quarter of 2010.

Of these trips, three-quarters, or 600,000, were to the United States, a 4.7% increase. Canadian overnight business travel to overseas nations was up 2.0%

In the opposite direction, however, overnight business travel to Canada declined 2.1% to just over 570,000 trips. About 70% of these trips were made by US business people. American business travel to Canada was down 2.1%.

Foreign business people spent $588 million in Canada in the fourth quarter, while Canadian business people spent just over $1.0 billion abroad.

Canadians made 3.8 million overnight trips for the purposes of pleasure outside the country in the fourth quarter, up 3.7% from the same quarter in 2010. Foreign travel to Canada for pleasure, however, fell 6.6% from the United States and 4.9% from overseas nations.

Canadian residents made 9.7% fewer trips abroad to visit friends and relatives.

The top overseas destinations for Canadian overnight travel in the fourth quarter were Mexico, the Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom. Travel to Mexico (+8.2%) rose, while travel to the Dominican Republic (-10.0%) and to the United Kingdom (-6.6%) declined.

The United Kingdom, France and China were the three most frequent overseas countries of origin for visitors to Canada during the fourth quarter. Travel rose from all three, particularly China, where the number of trips was up 29.7%, the highest increase.

New York, Florida and Washington were the most visited states by Canadian residents in the fourth quarter. All three recorded more overnight trips compared with the same period in 2010. Overnight travel to Washington state was up 7.8%, while travel to Florida rose 5.9%.

New York, Washington and Michigan were the top states of origin for overnight travel to Canada. Overnight travel from New York state fell 0.8% in the fourth quarter from the fourth quarter of 2010. Overnight travel from Washington state rose 3.5% from the fourth quarter of 2010.