Several factors have helped widen the gap between what Canadians spend abroad and what foreign visitors spend in Canada.
Recent Statistics Canada data reveals that this travel deficit increased $91 million to $42 billion in the quarter that ended June 30. Tourism insiders believe that this gap is continuing to widen, thanks to the Canadian dollar hitting a 13-month high of $1.0291 against the U.S. dollar in early September.
The sputtering U.S. economy, global economic jitters and increased duty-free limits for the amount of goods that Canadians can buy abroad all seem to have contributed to this widening deficit.
Cross-border shopping in the U.S. hit an all-time high in June, following the June 1 rise in federal duty-free exemptions.
The duty-free limit for Canadians jumped to $200 from $50 when they have left the country for more 24 hours and to $800 from $400 when Canadians have been away for more than 48 hours.
The new rules likely helped spur the 14% jump in overnight travel and 12.1% hike in same-day trips to the U.S. via B.C. border crossings in June compared with the same month in 2011.
The 424,203 overnight visits to the U.S. by Canadians via British Columbia border crossings were the highest since Statistics Canada record-keeping began.
In stark contrast to the surge in Canadians heading south, 0.4% fewer Americans crossed B.C. border crossings into Canada in June. Same-day entries to B.C. from Americans dropped a total of 3%, offsetting a 1.2% increase in overnight travellers.
Part of that dip could be blamed on the weather, particularly for short trips, said Tourism Vancouver executive vice-president Paul Vallee.
Vancouver endured significantly lower temperatures, more rain and fewer hours of sunshine than usual in June.
“It’s always hard to say how much the weather has to do with things because people often don’t book longer trips based on what the weather is today,” he said.
Tourism Vancouver’s latest figures for visitors to Metro Vancouver show that overnight visitors to the region rose 1.3% in the first six months of 2012 compared with the same period in 2011.
But hotel data from STR Hotel Review confirmed that the region had an extremely sluggish June, with hotel occupancy falling to 78.6% from 86.4% in June 2011. Hotel occupancy rebounded during Vancouver’s two biggest tourist months but remained below last year’s levels: to 83.8% in July from 86% in July 2011 and to 84.3% in August from 86.4% in August 2011.
“We’ll have fewer large citywide conventions this year compared with last year,” Vallee said. “That will have had an impact.”
Convention delegates tend to spend $263 per day with about 34% of that being on hotel rooms, according to Tourism Vancouver data.
Good news, however, is on the horizon for the cruise industry.
The number of cruise passengers travelling on ships that dock in Vancouver is expected to rise about 1% this year to 670,000 from 663,425 last year. Even better news for that sector will come next year when there will be a 20% jump in the number of ships docking at Canada Place and Ballantyne Pier – 230, up from 191 this year.
That is expected to bring 830,000 passengers, which is 7.6% less than the 898,473 who travelled in the recession year of 2009 but 43.3% more than the 578,986 cruise ship passengers who sailed through Vancouver in the year that the city hosted the Olympics. •
