Could it be that Some International Visitors are Forgoing the U.S. for Canada? While the arrivals figures for the first six months of 2017 from top producing international markets for the USA are on the decline, many of the same markets are performing handsomely, according to the latest monthly report—for September 2017—released by Destination Canada, the country’s tourism promotion agency.
For the first nine months of this year, Canada has experienced an increase of more than four percent in arrivals from both its 11 target markets and from all international markets. The only market registering a year-to-date decrease which, Destination Canada said, is “where outbound travel in general may have suffered in the midst of concerns for the economy ahead of Brexit.”
Meanwhile, Mexico is setting a record this year in the numbers of its travelers who are visiting Canada, while travel to the U.S. by Mexicans is down by more than 9 percent (or more than 750,000 visitors) for the first six months of 2017. Should the year-to-date pace through September hold for the last quarter, Canada should set a record for annual arrivals by international visitors. (editor’s note: Two reasons for Canada’s popularity: 1. Weakened Canadian dollar. 2. Donald J. Trump is not their president)
