More Travellers Coming to Canada as Pandemic Restrictions Ease: StatCan

Travellers are photographed at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Dec. 16, 2021. (Tijana Martin/The Canadian Press)

The number of international travellers coming to Canada is on the rise with the loosening of COVID-19 restrictions, but the number still remains well below pre-pandemic levels, Statistics Canada says.

A report from the agency released on May 24, shows roughly 148,900 foreign residents arrived in Canada in March 2022. While this is five times the number compared to the same month in 2021, it is less than half (43 percent) of the trips foreigners made to Canada in March 2019, just before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Similarly, U.S. residents made roughly 465,200 trips to Canada in March 2022, roughly five times the number of March 2021 but this represents less than one-third (31.9 percent) of the 1.5 million trips north made by Americans in March 2019.

The number of European travellers coming to Canada also saw a significant increase, jumping from 5,600 in March 2021 to 68,800 in March 2022. Visitors from Asia also increased from 12,100 to 33,700 during this period. However, the number of trips from both regions was also below the March 2019 level.

The StatCan report also looked at the number of trips Canadian residents made abroad.

Overall, Canadian residents made six times more trips overseas in March 2022 compared to March 2021, but it was still just over one-third (37.1 percent) of those made in March 2019.

Of the total returning Canadian trips, 775,800 were by automobile, with just under half (47.8 percent) being same-day trips.

While the number of return air trips by Canadian residents rose steeply from 18,900 in March 2021 to 549,300 in 2022, this was still under half the number of pre-pandemic trips.

The report also said many Canadians appear to have resumed March break vacations abroad as 685,000 residents returned from overseas travels in 2022, up from the 48,800 trips in March 2021 yet less than half (47.4 percent) of the 1.4 million trips made by returning Canadians in March 2019.

Canadians made 1.3 million return trips from the United States in March 2022, five times as many as in March 2021, but just a third of the 4 million trips made in March 2019.

In February 2022, the Canadian government announced its plan to gradually phase out restrictions on international travel with the easing of on-arrival testing for fully-vaccinated travellers and the option of using a rapid antigen test result or a molecular test result to meet pre-entry requirements.

At the end of that month, when restrictions limiting the number of airports allowed to receive international travellers expired, international flights were permitted to land in all Canadian government-designated international airports.

In April, border measures were further relaxed to allow fully-vaccinated travellers to enter the country without having to provide a negative pre-entry COVID-19 test.