Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, June 2022
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Released: 2022-09-13
Highlights
In June, overall tourism activity in Canada was 17.2% below the level reached in June 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic. With the exception of a temporary pause in January 2022 due to the Omicron variant, tourism activity has steadily recovered each month since May 2021.
Both domestic and inbound travel contributed to the overall increase in tourism activity across the country during June 2022, resulting in the highest recovery level since the onset of the pandemic.
Visit the Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker visualization tool to interact with the data.
Some travel requirements lifted
Travellers arriving in Canada are required to be fully vaccinated, while those not fully vaccinated, regardless of citizenship, are subject to a COVID-19 test on arrival. Random COVID-19 testing at all Canadian airports was paused on June 11, 2022, for fully vaccinated travellers, allowing airports to streamline their operations during this first month of the busy summer travel season.
All inbound travellers must continue to use the ArriveCAN App to enter their health information and proof of vaccination within 72 hours of their scheduled arrival into Canada.
As of June 20, proof of vaccination is no longer required to travel by plane or train domestically, or to board an international flight. However, vaccination is still required for passengers and crew on cruise ships.
A preview of how easing restrictions have since impacted international travel can be found in the "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada" for the July reference month.
Tourism recovery reaches another high
After steady improvement during the second half of 2021, overall tourism activity ended that year at 29.1% below its pre-pandemic level before falling to 43.4% below in January 2022 due to renewed COVID-19 restrictions. By February, activity was back on track to recovery and in June reached 17.2% below its 2019 pre-pandemic level, the highest level of recovery since the beginning of the pandemic.
In June 2022, both domestic and inbound tourism activity continued to increase. Compared with the June 2019 pre-pandemic level, domestic activity (i.e., from Canadians travelling within Canada) was down 6.1%, while inbound activity (i.e., from international visitors) was down 40.0%.
This tourism recovery helped to bolster gross domestic product in June, with monthly growth recorded in the accommodation and food services sector (+0.8%), the arts, entertainment and recreation sector (+1.8%) and in air transportation (+5.6%).
Chart 1
Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, December 2019 to June 2022
Provinces recover both domestic and inbound activity
Increased domestic tourism activity was felt across most provinces in June, with many recording the highest level of recovery since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. While several are within 5% of their domestic pre-pandemic level from June 2019, all provinces have recovered at least 85% of their pre-pandemic domestic tourism activity.
Inbound tourism activity also increased across many provinces, largely resulting from the 464,100 overseas visitors arriving in Canada during June 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).
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