Visitor Travel Survey, fourth quarter 2019
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Released: 2020-07-08
Highlights
International travellers made 6.4 million trips to Canada in the fourth quarter, when the emerging pandemic was not yet a consideration in travel decisions, up 2.8% from the same quarter of 2018.
The number of travellers to Canada from overseas countries (countries other than the United States) rose 4.8%, while the number of travellers from the United States was up 2.3%.
Nevertheless, spending in Canada by international travellers declined 5.3% year over year to $3.7 billion, led by a 10.5% decrease in spending by overseas travellers.
This release completes the portrait of international travel to Canada in 2019, which will serve as an important benchmark to measure the full impact of COVID-19 on travel behaviour in 2020.
More recent data on international travel to Canada are available in the releases "Travel between Canada and other countries" and "Leading indicator of cross-border traveller volume."
Strong growth in business travel among US residents
Travel to Canada by US residents rose from 4.9 million trips in the fourth quarter of 2018 to 5.0 million trips in the fourth quarter of 2019.
US visitors' most common purpose for travelling to Canada was holidays, leisure or recreation—travel for this purpose increased 3.3% to 1.9 million trips. The number of US residents travelling to Canada to visit friends or relatives rose slightly (+0.4%) year over year to 1.2 million trips.
Business travel registered the largest growth among US travellers to Canada, up 15.0% to 945,000 trips.
While travelling in Canada in the fourth quarter, US visitors spent $1.9 billion, up 0.4% from the same quarter a year earlier. The average amount spent per trip declined from $384 to $377.
Accommodation (37.4%), food and beverages (25.9%), and transportation within Canada (15.0%) were the major expense items for US visitors, followed by recreation and entertainment (9.4%).
Ontario was the most visited province during the quarter, up 5.9% compared with the same quarter a year earlier to 2.8 million visits. Visits by US residents to British Columbia rose 0.8% to 1.1 million, while visits to Quebec fell 4.9% to 692,000.
Spending down for travellers from China, but up for travellers from Europe
Travellers from overseas took 1.4 million trips to Canada in the fourth quarter, up 4.8% from the same period in 2018. Almost half of these trips (665,000) were to visit friends or relatives, while 386,000 were for holidays or recreation.
The 691,000 visits to Ontario, up 1.6% year over year, represented two-fifths (40.1%) of visits by overseas residents. British Columbia, the next most visited province, saw an increase of 0.3% to 380,000 visits, while Quebec reported a 5.0% decline to 362,000.
Spending by overseas travellers in Canada declined from $2.1 billion in the fourth quarter of 2018 to $1.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2019, led by lower spending by Chinese travellers. Spending by Chinese residents declined by one-third (-33.1%) year over year to $320 million.
Travel spending by visitors from the United Kingdom rose 17.3% year over year to $192 million, while spending by travellers from France increased 7.8% to $166 million.
Overseas travellers spent on average $1,333 per trip in Canada, down from $1,562 one year earlier. Among major source countries, visitors from China spent the most, at $2,462 per trip, followed by visitors from Australia ($1,948) and Japan ($1,890).
Chart 1
Average travel spending in Canada by overseas travellers, by selected major source country, fourth quarter 2019
Spending in all categories declined in the fourth quarter, with accommodation down 10.1% to $524 million, food and beverages down 7.2% to $513 million, and clothes and gifts down 11.1% to $424 million. These three expense items accounted for almost 8 of every 10 dollars spent in Canada by overseas residents.
In terms of the duration of stay, visitors from India stayed the longest, averaging 35 nights per trip in Canada, compared with an average of 29 nights by visitors from China and 18 nights by visitors from Australia.
Map 1
Tourism regions
Spending by foreign travellers in Canada's top-earning tourist regions declines
The Vancouver, coast and mountains region was the top-earning tourist region, at $758 million. However, a 9.1% drop was observed from the fourth quarter of 2018, led by a 20.8% year-over-year decrease in spending by overseas travellers to $408 million. Spending by visitors from China declined by almost half (-48.7%). Conversely, spending by US visitors rose 9.7% to $350 million.
Foreign travellers spent $680 million in the Greater Toronto Area, down 9.4% from the fourth quarter of 2018. Overseas travellers accounted for over half (50.9%) of this total, down 15.7% to $346 million. Visitors from China ($62 million) and the United Kingdom ($36 million) spent the most in the region. However, spending by Chinese travellers declined 27.8%, while spending by United Kingdom visitors increased 15.2%.
The Montréal area ranked third in tourism spending among Canada's tourism regions. International spending in the region declined 3.9% to $448 million. Overseas travellers ($231 million) accounted for more than half (51.5%) of these expenditures, led by visitors from France ($75 million). Spending by US visitors in the region declined 8.6% year over year to $217 million in the quarter.
Chart 2
Total travel expenditures of foreign travellers in the highest-earning tourism regions (millions of dollars), fourth quarter 2019
Note to readers
The Visitor Travel Survey (VTS) collects information about international travel to Canada by US and overseas residents.
The VTS was developed to fully replace the inbound visitor component of the International Travel Survey (ITS) and consists of two components: electronic questionnaires and the Air Exit Survey. Data from the VTS are historically comparable with data from the ITS.
The VTS uses Statistics Canada's Frontier Counts as benchmarks for the numbers of travellers to Canada. Statistics Canada's Frontier Counts are produced using administrative data from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on all international travellers who have been cleared for entry or re-entry into Canada.
In 2018, Statistics Canada undertook a review of sources of data on overseas residents entering Canada at land ports. Overseas residents who enter Canada at land ports represent about 10% of total overseas travellers to Canada. Total counts of overseas travellers were revised to reflect new sources of data at some ports.
In addition, starting with August 2018 Frontier Counts data, Statistics Canada implemented a new method for estimating the country of residence. Collectively, these changes affect the total counts of travellers to Canada from individual countries.
Starting with the release of 2018 data, VTS data include subprovincial estimates of tourism spending by international visitors to Canada. These estimates use small area estimation (SAE) modelling to combine data collected from the VTS with aggregated payment processor data provided to Statistics Canada by Destination Canada. Payment processor data include information on spending category, tourism region and country of origin for credit cards used by international visitors to Canada. Methodological information is available in the document Small Area Estimation for Visitor Travel Survey.
The sum of spending data derived from the SAE model will not equal the sum produced by the VTS alone. When spending data are analyzed, it is recommended to use the estimates derived from the SAE model.
Overseas countries refer to countries other than the United States.
A trip to Canada is made by a resident of a country other than Canada who is cleared through a CBSA point of entry on a visit for a period of less than 12 months. A Canadian citizen residing outside Canada for more than 12 months who comes to Canada is included as a traveller from a country other than Canada.
A trip to Canada for a person residing in a country other than Canada starts when they are cleared through a CBSA point of entry to enter Canada and ends when they exit Canada.
Trips and visits: A trip can consist of one or more visits. A traveller from a country other than Canada may stay in several locations during a trip to Canada. Each stay at a Canadian location (for example, a province) within a given trip represents a visit.
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; STATCAN.infostats-infostats.STATCAN@canada.ca) or Media Relations (613-951-4636; STATCAN.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.STATCAN@canada.ca).
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