Visitors to Canada from the United States has hit a 12-year high.
According to a new report from Statistics Canada, over 10 million Americans have visited Canada between January and June 2019, up 2.2 per cent from the same time last year.
It’s the highest number of arriving U.S visitors to Canada since 2007, and about two thirds of American visitors spend at least one night in Canada when they arrive.
Over 320,000 of those visits were in Alberta, where American tourism has increased 6.9 per cent in the first half of 2019 compared to 2018.
“There are a lot of other factors as well as to why American visitors are coming to see us, and that includes the dollar, which is very favorable for visitors right now,” Cassandra McAuley with Tourism Calgary said.
According to Tourism Calgary, the influx of American tourists is adding to a strong summer in the city’s tourism industry.
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McAuley said May and June were record months for hotel room bookings in the city, with the higher number of visits being attributed to people on vacation rather than business travelers.
“When you think about when a visitor comes to the city, not only do our hotels benefit and our attractions, but our transportation providers, our restaurants, bars, all the festivals and events that we have,” McAuley said.
“We’re a $2-billion annual industry in the city, and so when we see record growth, we employ more people.”
Other indicators for a growth in tourists came earlier this year with the Calgary Stampede, which saw its second-highest attendance ever with 1.27 million people taking in the festivities.
“A lot of our attractions had strong summers, so our attractions are seeing the visitation and our neighbours to the west in Banff are seeing some good numbers from our international visitors as well,” McAuley said.
Tourism Calgary is also expecting a strong finish to summer, with events like the Canadian Country Music Awards, a motocross event in late September, and the Grey Cup later this year.
Other provinces that saw a large increase in American visitors include Saskatchewan at 9.8 per cent, New Brunswick at 6.9 per cent, and Manitoba at 6.7 per cent.
After the United States, the countries with the highest numbers of visitors to Canada are the U.K., China, France, Mexico and Germany.
According to Statistics Canada, while the number of Americans visiting is up, overall travel numbers to Canada are down between May and June of this year, but saw an increase of over nine per cent compared to last year.
Meanwhile, Canadian visits to the U.S. are down 2.8 per cent from last year, and June 2019 marked the third consecutive month of declines of trips by Canadians to the U.S.
The lower number of visits south of the border comes at the same time the U.S. dollar rose from CAN$1.31 to CAN$1.33 in June 2019.
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