Fewer Canadians travelling to the States, more Americans heading north

That red, white, and blue country we call our next-door neighbour may have been losing its charm for Canadians over the past few months, as fewer and fewer Canucks have been making the trip across the border.

That’s not to say that there are zero Timbits-lovers making visits to America, but rather that the number of visitors between the two countries has been on the decline (Canada to US, that is) for the past five recorded months.

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According to Statistics Canada, August 2018 saw 1% fewer travellers when compared to July of the same year — and while 1% may not seem like a lot, keep in mind that there were still 3.5 million trips to the US taken by Canadians, meaning that the 1% decrease equals out to 35,000 fewer trips taken.

August also marked the fifth consecutive month of a decline in Canadians heading to America, dating back to April of this year.

The other side of the coin border finds an increased number of Americans heading into the Great White North (or at least a tad bit further north than the 49th parallel, if we’re being specific) with 1.2% more travellers heading into the country for a total of 2 million trips, when comparing August with July.

There may have been an even larger increase, Stats Canada states, if it weren’t for those meddling forest fires that caused flight cancellations, road closures, and heavy smoke in parts of BC and Alberta.

Still, a slight increase of travellers from other countries into Canada was also seen by a modest 0.5%, accounting for 547,000 trips, which followed a noted decline throughout July and June.

Stats Canada also found that America remains Canadians’ most consistent destination, with just 993,000 of us heading out to countries that weren’t the USA.