Cost-conscious Canadians wanting to get more bang for the buck during their vacation might want to look at countries with currencies weakening against the loonie.
So far this year, the dollar has skyrocketed in value against the euro, the U.S. dollar and the Mexican peso. The loonie has hit new highs against the Mexican peso since June and hit a new high against the euro in August, a bittersweet benefit from global concerns over the European debt crisis, and it's remained above par against the U.S. greenback since August, thanks, in part, to the U.S. Federal Reserve's money-printing policy aimed at boosting the economy.
Canadians seem to be taking notice of these currency moves. According to Statistics Canada, the number of Canadian trips aboard have remained elevated for the past year, rising 4% year-over-year in July to more than 5.4 million trips from 5.2 million in July 2011.
According to BMO Bank of Montreal's fall travel survey conducted by Leger Marketing, Florida, New York and Nevada topped the list of U.S. destinations Canadians want to visit this fall. Mexico was the top international destination and Europe was a close second.
The results are similar to RBC's September travel rewards poll conducted by Ipsos, which found American and European destinations like Honolulu, Paris, Rome, London, Las Vegas and New York among the top international destinations for Canadians.
This might be good news for tourist operators in these key markets, but it adds more pressure to Canadian tourist operators who are facing a drop in the number of visitors coming to B.C.
According to Statistics Canada, the number of international tourists visiting B.C. has fallen 37% in July to 479,389 visitors compared with the decade-high monthly number of 757,203 reached in March 2001.
A glimmer of hope for domestic tourism markets is that the majority of Canadians taking time off this fall plan to travel within the country.
While 39% of Canadians plan to take their vacation in their home province, 24% said they'd be heading to B.C. compared with 21% wanting to visit Ontario. •
