Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, October 2022
Released: 2023-01-06
Highlights
In October, overall tourism activity in Canada was 2.0% below the level reached in October 2019, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Visit the Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker visualization tool to interact with the data.
COVID-19 border restrictions removed
On October 1, all COVID-19 border restrictions, including vaccination, mandatory use of the ArriveCAN app as well as any testing and quarantine requirements, were removed for all travellers entering Canada by land, air, or sea.
A preview of international travel can be found in the release "Leading indicator of international arrivals to Canada" for November.
Overall tourism activity
Since January, overall tourism activity has steadily increased each month, such that activity in October was 2.0% below its pre-pandemic level observed during the same month in 2019.
Some tourism activity recovery may partly reflect higher prices. For instance, the transportation component of the Consumer Price Index rose 9.5% year over year in October, with gasoline prices up by 17.8% over the same period.
Chart 1
Canadian Tourism Activity Tracker, December 2019 to October 2022
Provincial recovery varies
While the recovery of domestic tourism activity was lower in October than in September for several provinces, all provinces have recovered at least 89% of their pre-pandemic domestic tourism activity.
All provinces have recovered at least half of their inbound tourism activity levels from October 2019. The 366,800 overseas visitors arriving in Canada during October 2022 helped bolster inbound tourism activity in some provinces more than in others. For example, some of these arrivals were from maiden and returning cruise ship visits to the provinces in Atlantic Canada (see Note to readers). It is also not possible to disregard Hurricane Fiona's lingering impacts on accommodation and food services in these provinces.
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 year. 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. More data sources being considered along with new methods may entail the need for further revisions.
Finally, the return of cruise ships visiting Prince Edward Island created a measurement anomaly: a high number of inbound visitors to the island. The number of maiden international visitors continues to exceed the pre-pandemic levels used to establish the 2019 base value.
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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