Canadians Still the Top Visitors to the US

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?Some 20.7 million Canadians visited the United States last year according to the latest intel from the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Travel & Tourism Office. Accounting for 26.7 per cent of all international arrivals to the U.S., Canadians remain the nation’s largest group of inbound visitors.

But numbers from Canada are down to the tune of 10 per cent, the second year of decline from Canada, which the Department of Commerce says “strongly correlates” to the deprecation of the Canadian dollar. The decrease in visitation comes in tandem with a “marked decline” in land visitation to the U.S.

With the strong performance by visitors from Mexico, the second-largest inbound market for the U.S, which are up 8 per cent over last year, Canadians travellers outpaced those from Mexico by just two million.

In terms of inbound visitors, the U.S. had a pretty good 2015. In total, the U.S. welcomed more than 77.5 million visitors, an increase of 3 per cent over the previous year. Of the United States’ top inbound markets, only Canada and Brazil (-2 per cent) showed a decline. The others: Mexico, United Kingdom (+18 per cent), Japan (+4 per cent), China (+18 per cent), Germany (+10 per cent), South Korea (+21 per cent), France (+6 per cent), and Australia (+11 per cent) all sent more visitors to the United States last year.

But when it comes to visitor spending, the numbers aren’t quite as rosy. Not unexpectedly, Canadians spent considerably less on tourism-related purchases last year. In fact, with a decline of 16 per cent over the previous year, in tandem with a strong growth in spending by the Chinese market, Canada fell to second place for the first time in eight years.

Canadians aren’t the only ones spending less. Of the nation’s top ten markets, Canada, Japan (-6 per cent), the UK (-7 per cent), Germany (-8 per cent) and France (-3 per cent) all showed a decline in visitor spending. Visitor spending from travellers originating from Mexico and Brazil, #2 and #5, respectively, showed modest increases of just one per cent.  Only China and South Korea reflected double digit growth.

For more details, download the Top 10 International Markets: 2015 Visitation and Spending.

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