Pleasure travel abroad rose 9.9 per cent in Q3 compared to 2011: StatsCan

OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says Canadians travelled more for pleasure in the third quarter last year, compared with the same quarter in 2011.

The agency says Canadians took 6.5 million overnight trips for pleasure outside Canada in the third quarter, up 9.9 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier.

It says 5.1 million of these trips were to the United States, a 10.8 per cent increase.

Canadian made 553,000 overnight business trips to the United States, down 0.2 per cent.

Pleasure travel was the most common reason for overnight travel to Canada from the United States, as American residents took 2.9 million overnight pleasure trips to Canada in the third quarter, down 2.1 per cent from the same quarter a year earlier.

The most common overseas destinations for overnight travel by Canadian residents were the United Kingdom, France and Italy, while the top three overseas countries of origin for visitors to Canada were the U.K., France and Germany.