Monday, September 24, 2007 – Available today is a set of tables containing data on domestic travel for the third quarter of 2006 from the Travel Survey of Residents of Canada (TSRC).
This survey, which started in 2005, provides estimates of domestic visits that are in line with the international guidelines recommended by the World Tourism Organization.
A domestic visit is one that originates and occurs within Canada, is less than 365 days in duration, ends during the reference period, and is outside the respondent’s “usual” environment.
The visits made by Canadian travellers in Canada totalled 64.9 million during the third quarter of 2006. Almost a quarter of these visitors were accompanied by household members less than 18 years old.
Visits for pleasure, vacation, holiday, and visiting friends and relatives represented 91% of all domestic visits. Together, these visits increased 2.1% in the third quarter of 2006 compared with the same period in 2005.
Intra-provincial visits reached 58.5 million in the third quarter of 2006, while inter-provincial visits totalled 7.6 million.
In Canada, 9 domestic visits out of 10 were taken within the traveller’s province of residence.
Same day visits reached 32.9 million in the third quarter of 2006, while overnight visits totalled 32.0 million.
Canadian residents spent an average of four nights away from home during their overnight visits in Canada. Of the 116.2 million nights spent away from home, 50.9 million were spent in a commercial establishment.
Domestic travel usually peaks during the summer vacation period. The number of visits in Canada was 23.2 million in July, almost equal to the 23.5 million visits recorded in August, and in September it reached 18.2 million.
Canadian travellers spent $11.8 billion within the country during the third quarter of 2006. When taking inflation into account, spending on domestic visits totalled $11.0 billion (in 2002 dollars) for this same quarter.
More than 60% of all domestic expenditures were for transportation ($3.9 billion) and food and beverages ($3.4 billion).
In the third quarter of 2006, Canadian spending on domestic visits for pleasure, vacation, holiday, and visiting friends and relatives increased 2.0% compared with the same period in 2005.
Note: The total domestic visit estimates for the third quarter of 2006 are preliminary and are not comparable with the preliminary data released for the third quarter of 2005. Two categories of visits (business and other) are affected due to changes made to the TSRC questionnaire, beginning with the reference month of September 2005. These two categories represented 9% of domestic visits in the third quarter of 2006. The remaining categories of visits, which include pleasure, vacation, holiday, and visiting friends and relatives, are comparable.
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Statistics Canada produces statistics that help Canadians better understand their country — its population, resources, economy, society and culture. In Canada, providing statistics is a federal responsibility. As Canada’s central statistical agency, Statistics Canada is legislated to serve this function for the whole of Canada and each of the provinces. Visit www.statscan.ca.
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