Fewer trips being made to Canada, Statistics Canada says

Travel in and out of Canada dipped in April, Statistics Canada said in its monthly survey released Wednesday.

Canadians made 597,000 trips to overseas countries in April, a decrease of one per cent from the record-high numbers recorded in March.

Travel to the U.S. also fell 0.4 per cent lower than the previous month to 3.3 million trips, the federal agency said.

As the dollar continued to gain steam in April, nearing the 90-cent level by the end of April, the number of Americans crossing into Canada dipped modestly. Americans made a total of 2.1 million trips a decline of 0.2 per cent below the previous month.

New passport rules for American travellers may have contributed to the decline. In January, new requirements made it mandatory for American citizens to show a passport when returning the country by air from Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean. U.S. passport offices struggled to meet the demand for passports as Americans complained of a 12-week backlog.

A larger drop was recorded in travel from overseas tourists, who made 389,000 trips in April adrop of 2.8 per cent from March.

Of Canada's top 12 markets, travel from Italy showed the largest gain, at 9.7 per cent, while travel from Mexico fell significantly, by 12.7 per cent.