Where did Canadians travel last year? In 2024, Canadian arrivals to the Europe and U.K. region were up by double digits from 2019 in Austria, Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, the U.K. and even Iceland. And they were way up in Portugal (89 per cent) and Spain (42.8 per cent), but down slightly in France, Germany, Greece and Italy. In Asia, Oceania and the South Pacific, there’s still some work to do to achieve parity with 2019 – although travel by Canadians to Japan increased by almost 55 per cent, India by 30.9 per cent, South Korea by 25.4 per cent, and let’s not forget Fiji – up by 52.1 per cent. And closer to home – in the Caribbean and Latin America region, Canadian travel rebounded by 33 per cent in the Dominican Republic from 2019; 9.9 per cent in Mexico; a modest 1.8 per cent in Jamaica; 16 per cent in Costa Rica; 4 per cent in Turks and Caicos; and 25.3 per cent in Brazil; but travel to Bahamas, Cuba and Bermuda remain on a downward trajectory. Data from Statistics Canada and government and tourism agencies in host countries. Overall, of Canadians’ 33.1 million global outbound trips, 20.2 million were to the U.S., with 3.27 million ending up in Florida, which hosted 8.85 million visitors from countries around the world in 2024 – including 1.14 million from the U.K. and 1.1 million from Brazil – the sunshine state’s top three foreign tourism sources. But these data reflect one worrying note for Florida, as Canadian tourism fell 20 per cent short of the 4.1 million in pre-Covid 2019. In addition, California hosted an estimated 1.8 million Canadian visitors in 2023; New York City, more than 800,000; Las Vegas, 925,000; and Phoenix, 465,000 air passengers (serving Canadian snowbirds throughout the state). That was the picture at the beginning of the year. But since then, threats of tariff disputes and challenges to national identity coming out of Washington have rattled Canadian/U.S. relations and predicting travel trends into the future will require a Ouija board. According to the U.S. Travel Association, losing even 10 per cent of Canada’s inbound tourism could cost America $2.11 billion and 14,000 jobs. But even before cross-border political antagonisms broke out in February and March, there were worrying economic indicators for Canadians considering foreign travel – not helped by a pallid loonie. Travel intentions In trying to gauge Canadians’ winter travel intentions, CBoC found little exuberance. Asked about their travel intentions for the winter of 2024-2025, almost half (48 per cent) of respondents cited travel as too expensive, “can’t afford it.” Others said that they would take shorter trips, travel “economy,” book “all inclusives” or scour deals/incentives for cheaper ways to get to their destinations. In another survey released by Maru Public Policy, September 2024: of the 68 per cent of Canadians surveyed who said that they planned to travel within the next 12 months, a third responded that they would not be buying travel insurance because they couldn’t afford it, and more than 60 per cent said that they were prepared to forgo such luxuries as dining out or buying new clothes just to help finance their trips. And, according to a survey taken by the CBoC in February 2025, consumer confidence tumbled by 52.6 points – the second lowest since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020. CSANews | SPRING 2025 | 23 Travel
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