While the highlighted numbers in the last report from Destination Canada show that—based on just-released data covering the First Quarter of 2018—the country is experiencing another year of record inbound traffic, it is also increasing its tally of visitors to the United States in healthy numbers, ending a slump that saw Canadian arrivals to the U.S. fall by about 3.7 million visitors from 2014 through 2016.
Because the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office (NTTO) earlier this year halted the release of inbound visitor numbers pending work on to correct problems with the way that the Department of Homeland Security was tallying the information, there are no similar NTTO data for Q1 2018. However, the NTTO figure for Q1 visitors from Canada to the United States was 4,610,202. The 6.2 percent increase reported by Destination Canada for the same periods would translate into a number—4.9 million*—that is just about the same as the 4.9 million in the table above.
* (4,896,034: Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, International Trade Administration, National Travel and Tourism Office—from Summary of International Travel to the U.S. (I-94) report. I-94 March 2017 monthly arrivals data are preliminary, with these data subject to revisions that may be possible with improved solutions and/or sources discovered during the reported calendar year. Released August 2017.)
The Brand USA View: The upbeat report from Destination Canada seems to buttress the report on Canada recently released by Brand USA and its regional director for Canada, Karly Melo.
First, some background info:
First time Canadian visitors to the U.S. comprise 12 percent of the total. (2016)
Repeat Canadian visitors to the U.S. comprise 88 percent of the total.
Source: NTTO
The Top 10 Popular Destinations among Canadians (Most searched for destinations on KAYAK) are:
- Orlando; (2) Fort Lauderdale, Florida; (3) Cancun, Mexico; (4) Honolulu, Hawaii; (5) San Jose, Costa Rica; (6) Las Vegas, Nevada; (7) Puerto Vallarta; (8) Miami, Florida; (9) Los Angeles; (10) Kahului, Hawaii
Source: Kayak.com
Where They Travel
Source: Long-Haul Destination Market Share, Oxford Economics 2016-2021 (Projected)
Drivers of Growth
—Canada is in a period of economic growth
—Baby-boomers represent a significant portion of the population
—Canadian residents from various ethnic communities travel to their country of origin to visit friends and family
—Canadians are familiar with digital marketing and are among the most active populations on social media
Source: Trading Economics 2017
Travel Interests
—Beaches/seaside attractions
—Cultural/historical attractions
—Local lifestyle
—Dining/gastronomy
—Shopping
—Sporting events Travel Interests
Source: Transport Canada
Air Service: Canada has 26 national airports, 71 regional and local airports which handle 62 million aircraft movements and more than 140 million passengers. As of 2016, regularly scheduled Canadian airlines serviced 90 U.S. Cities. (Source: Transport Canada)
