Canadian residents returned from over 3.7 million trips abroad in August 2022, more than four times as many trips as were taken in August 2021.
StatsCan says Canadian trips abroad were up 340.4% in August compared to last year. Still, the August 2022 figure was only 63.4% of the level in August 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In the month of August 752,900 Canadian residents returned from visiting overseas, more than double from the same month in 2021 (341,700). During the same month, travel to U.S. increased six-fold over AUG 2021.
StatsCan said the number of international arrivals to Canada continued to increase year over year in August, but that the pace of recovery has slowed somewhat from July.
Residents of overseas countries made six times more trips to Canada in August compared with the same month in 2021, over half (51.6%) of the trips taken in August 2019.
Likewise, US residents took nearly 2.0 million trips to Canada in August 2022. This was almost four times the number of trips taken in August 2021 and represented over half (55.4%) of the trips in August 2019.
Critics this summer said the continuing presence of the ArriveCAN app and the requirement that Canadians and visitors report their medical information before coming into the country put a large damper on visitation to Canada. The Arrive CAN app was made optional as of October 1, 2022.
StatsCan said international travel has steadily increased since August 2021, with the exception of a temporary pause in January 2022 due to the Omicron variant and renewed COVID-19 restrictions.
“In fact, the pace of recovery in international travel is now more subject to capacity constraints than to public health restrictions,” the agency said. “In August, the country’s major airports continued to face challenges with increasing passenger counts and various staff shortages.”
Toronto Pearson Airport (YYZ) was especially hard hit by crowding and delays this summer.
“The situation forced several of the largest passenger airlines to curtail some services during this last month of the busy summer travel season.”
