ROMA LUCIW Globe and Mail Update
For the first time in 12 years, Canada has fallen off the top 10 list for international travel, bumped by Hong Kong.
Canada ranked 11th in international tourist arrivals in 2004, after placing as high as fifth during the World Exposition in Vancouver, Statistics Canada said Monday, using its most recent annual data. That was down from 10th place in 2003.
The Statscan report shows that global tourism suffered in 2003 as the SARS outbreak, the war in Iraq and softer economic growth kept people close to home. In 2004, it rebounded 10.7 per cent, which was a record high 763 million travellers, Statscan said, citing numbers collected by the World Tourism Organization. That 2004 recovery was the highest of its kind and the only increase to reach double-digits since the current data collection method was started in 1980.
Hong Kong moved up four places to place seventh among the most popular destinations for tourists in 2004, displacing Canada. It was the first time since 1992 that Canada has been elbowed out of the top ten list.
France, Spain and the United States were the most visited countries that year, followed by China, Italy, the United Kingdom, Mexico, Germany and Austria.
The biggest travel drop-off to Canada in 2004 was among Americans, who made fewer cross-border day trips.
Same-day trips to Canada from the U.S. tumbled 8.2 per cent to 19.5 million in 2004 and have slumped annually since 1999.
"Fears of longer wait times at the border and the uncertainty regarding border security and its policies since 9/11, a less favourable exchange rate and higher gasoline prices may have contributed to the drop in same-day travel from the United States," the report said.
That said, the report show overnight travel, or longer trips, by Americans rose in 2004 from the previous year.
Overall, the number of foreigners visiting Canada reached 38.8 million in 2004, slightly less than in 2003. Excluding American tourists, more than 4.2 million overseas tourists boarded planes to Canada in 2004, up 24.3 per cent from 2003.
In 2002, before the SARS outbreak, the number of global visitors to Canada was 5 per cent.
Meanwhile, Canadians were hit with the travel bug in 2004, as the number of trips abroad rose for the first time in four years.
Canadians made 5.7 million overnight trips to overseas countries in 2004, up 13.1 per cent from the record high set in 2003. Bermuda and the Caribbean experienced the largest jump in Canadian tourists, up 15.4 per cent, followed by Europe, up 9.1 per cent.
The United Kingdom displaced Mexico as the most visited overnight overseas destination for Canadians, with more than 754,000 tourists visiting that country in 2004. Ireland moved into the top 15 for the first time since 2001 while Australia fell out of the top 15 for the first time since 2000.
However, the U.S. remains by far the most popular destination for Canadian travellers.
Canadian residents made 41.8 million trips in 2004, and 86 per cent or 36 million of those were to our southern neighbour. Same-day trips and overnight trips to the U.S. rose in 2004 from the previous year.
New York was the most visited U.S. state in 2004, as almost 2.3 million Canadians made the trip. New Yorkers visited Canada in larger numbers than residents of any other state in 2004, with almost 1.9 million tourists from New York crossing the border.
The record travel by Canadians sent this country's international travel deficit to its highest level in 11 years, the report said.
The deficit – defined as the difference between spending by Canadian residents abroad and spending by foreigners in Canada – reached $4.1-billion in 2004, up $101 million from the previous year, Statscan said.
