American and overseas travel to Canada hit a record low in March, Statistics Canada reported Tuesday.
In total, only 2.3 million foreign visitors, including those from the U.S., came to Canada in March -- a 12.4 per cent drop in travel compared to March 2007.
March had the fewest number of tourists since record-keeping began in 1972. It also marks a fifth consecutive month of all-time lows for the Canadian tourism industry.
U.S. residents made only 730,000 trips in March, down 2.5 per cent from the previous month.
Overseas travellers to Canada made just 384,000 trips in March, 3.0 per cent fewer that in February.
Eight of Canada's top 12 international markets saw decreases. The most significant drops in tourism were from Mexico, Germany and Hong Kong. Visits from Indian, Italian and Dutch tourists were up slightly.
Randy Williams, president and CEO of the Tourism Industry Association of Canada says the StatsCan report is not surprising. His organization has been noticing the significant declines in American tourism to Canada for over five years.
"Every year we think we hit rock-bottom, and we should start to see a turnaround and it's worse than the year before. We don't know where the bottom of this well is," Williams told CTV.ca.
Williams believes the American market will continue to slip as long as gas prices are high, the U.S. economy is slowing, and lineups at the border are long because of increased documentation requirements.
The Tourism Industry Association of Canada has been lobbying for the use of enhanced drivers' licences to replace passports that will soon be mandatory to cross the U.S.-Canada border by land.
But Williams says it's not all bad news for the industry, which has seen other international tourists visiting Canada in healthy numbers.
Meanwhile, Canadian residents were making a record number of trips outside of the country in March, StatsCan reported.
The number of Canadian trips abroad rose 1.4 per cent to almost 4.5 million. The vast majority of trips -- 85 per cent -- were to the United States.
The past six months has seen rates of Canadian travel to the U.S. at their highest since 1998.
Canadian travel to countries other than the United States was a record 670,000 -- an increase of 0.4 per cent.
March was the 10th month in which a record high was set for Canadian travel over the past year.
The StatsCan report comes just before national tourism week kicks off June 2.
