Business travel to, from Canada grew in Q1, says StatsCan
by The Canadian Press
Canadians made 673,000 overnight business trips to U.S. in first quarter, up 12.3 per cent from 2011
OTTAWA—Statistics Canada says overnight business travel to and from Canada increased at a faster pace than pleasure travel in the first quarter this year.
Canadian travellers made 673,000 overnight business trips to the United States in the first quarter, up 12.3 per cent from the first quarter of 2011.
Meanwhile, Canadian residents took nearly 3.3-million pleasure trips to the United States, up 9.9 per cent.
In the opposite direction, American travellers made 425,000 overnight business trips to Canada, a 7.1 per cent increase, while Americans took 671,000 overnight pleasure trips, up 5.8 per cent from the first quarter of 2011.
For countries other than the United States, the primary reason for coming to Canada was to visit friends or relatives.
Overseas residents made 210,000 such overnight trips, up 12 per cent from the first quarter last year. Travel for pleasure was also the prime reason for Canadian overseas travel, accounting for 81.2 per cent of all such trips.
