Statcan published its "International Travel: Advance Information" bulletin for June 2008 today. US inbound tourism to Canada continues to slide with apparently no signs of turning around (except perhaps in Toronto given the success of Caribana this year). When it comes to automobile tourism - no surprise given gas prices in june - all provinces were hammered with double digit drops in excess of 10%. American visits by air were down 8.1% from June 2007.
-Overseas markets, though held their own with overall growth from most countries. Western Europe did quite well in june with inbound tourism to Canada growing by 2.3% compared to the same period last year. Only The Netherlands, Portugal and the UK saw declines.
-Hispanic tourism to Canada continues to grow, albeit at a slower rate in June than in previous months (logical before the busy summer season). Spanish inbound grew a respectable 8.4% compared to June '07. 7.8% more Mexicans came to Canada than a year earlier and Spanish speaking South America grew by 4.4%.
-Overall the decline in US visits is still a very big concern. It is now down 19.5% in the last three years and a staggering 50% since the year 2000 when Canada received 19,324,996 American visitors from January to June! (Compared to 9,627,935 from Jan to June this year)(source: StatCan's International Travel: Advance Information bulletins) It is amazing that the industry has been able to withstand this kind of blow. 50% in eight years!
Can anything be done to stem the tide (some would rather use the phrase "stopt the bleeding.")? I have my own opinions about it see one here: Canadian Tourism in Crisis.
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regards,
Jaime Horwitz MBA
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