Drop in visitors to Canada (U.S. to blame): StatsCan

[Newsjock]

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/12/19/Travel_051219.html
CBC News

The number of travellers to Canada for the month of October is the second lowest recorded in the past 12 years, according to a report from Statistics Canada.

The survey, released Monday, says just over 2.9 million foreigners came to the country. That compares to the lowest number of 2.8 million recorded in August.

... It said the decrease was "due to a sharp drop in overnight trips" from Americans. Meanwhile, there was a 14 per cent plunge in the number of British visitors compared to September.

The number of visitors from certain countries – Germany, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan – went up in October compared to the month before.

more

[Clutch Cargo]

1. Blame??

I don't agree with that word choice. Blame suggests an apology. Should we apologize for not visiting Canada as often as we did in years past?

[Inland]

2. A slightly less favorable exchange rate, too, with US.

Still Canada is a great travel bargain. Montreal, Quebec City, Vancouver and Vancouver Island, I can personally recommend, heard great things about Banff and the Windsor Ballet.

[AlamoDemoc]

3. Your headline is misleading

The headline you site never said anything about "US to blame"

http://www.cbc.ca/story/canada/national/2005/12/19/Travel_051219.html

[nine23]

4. This is just so fucking bogus.

Conservatives in the Canadian tourist industry are really having a heyday with this one. Scare tactics, as in "If we were nicer to George Bush, they will come..." type of shite.

What it fails to take into account, quite simply, is: travel and tourism is down around the world, airlines have gone bankrupt, etc. SUCK IT UP, and stop marketing to Americans would no longer travel outside the US because Faux News makes the world look like it's full of brown people wanting to kill them!

Besides, if that 14% represents xtian redneck retards from red states who refuse to come to a country full of "Married Commie Homos", then fine. MY BELOVED HOME IS SMELLING BETTER EVERY DAY.

[Spazito]

5. Exactly! Travel is down everywhere

The cost to fly or even drive has skyrocketed and isn't worth it. I know I am travelling a great deal less than I did even two years ago. I do resent the misleading addition to the correct headline in the OP though, nowhere in the headline or in the article is the word 'blame' used nor even implied.

[SoCalDem]

6. Canada needs to re-market itself

Canada could be a destination of first choice, instead of an afterthought for US-visitors..

They could have some pretty nifty ad slogans:


Come to Canada..(we're the friendly country just north of "them"..)

Try Canada..More Dazzle...Less hassle

Canada- Up North..but not Up-Tight

[TedsGarage]

7. Homeland Security

People aren't visiting Canada because, thanks to the DHS, it's a royal pain to get back into the U.S. No one wants to sit in traffic for 20 minutes, then submit to an interrogation by a crew-cut thug in a flak jacket. I spent the summer traveling around the Great Lakes, and I can tell you DHS is very unpopular in border cities.

[AlienGirl]

8. Bingo.

I like to go to Vancouver and Victoria occasionally, but the last time I went it was such a hassle. The lines were long and the agents seemed less friendly, on both sides of the border, than they used to be. And soon it will require a passport, which I haven't got yet because it costs $87 and takes six weeks and my trips up to BC have always been spur-of-the-moment, "let's go get dinner at that one restaurant" sorts of things.

Tucker

[WePurrsevere]

9. We live on the border of Canada & this is 80% of it.

We recently went to Canada for the first time in years and discovered that the stories we had heard from fellow locals who had were true.

It used to be that those who lived on the border would bop back and forth to shop but there are less Canadians visible on this side and many Americans aren't shopping in Canada any more because of the hassle.

The exchange rate is probably a small part of it in some areas as well but for many border towns the best shopping selection is over the border a bit. The other factor is probably the same reason less are shopping period... the economy is in the toilet. With folks paying increasing amounts for normally locally purchased "necessities" like food, heat, gas, electric, etc there's simply less available.

As for DHS and the Border Patrol invasion... pfft!! You haven't lived until you've been stopped by the Border Patrol in your own country asking you border crossing type questions or been pulled over in your own country so they can look through your car (this has happened to my petite white blond 27 y/o daughter twice. Although she knows her rights she was afraid to give them any trouble since she can't afford to be detained for too long or the good lawyer she'd need to fight for her). Admittedly most of the border police are pleasant and almost apologetic about it and we know they're mostly just doing their job but this aggravates the heck out of my husband and I because it is just so wrong/unconstitutional especially when they search a car with no warrant or even real probable cause. It's also a waste of tax money. Although they have caught a few drug runners on the Northway with the above check point our guess is that they were decoys or just plain stupid since it is so incredibly easy to avoid it.

What's ridiculous is where and when they set up is fairly predictable, there are many well mapped out side and dirt roads so any smart drug runner or terrorist could easily get around these points to do their business as long as they didn't care about getting there by the fastest and most direct route possible.

If you feel up to a challenge during the day take the NYS Rte 87 (aka: The Northway) from the Canadian border south. In about an hour and a half you'll encounter one of NYs larger "check points. If you want to avoid it check the map... it's very easily done if you're not in a hurry... there's still the old road that winds through all the cute and scenic small towns but basically runs parallel.

[Agnomen]

10. Tried to make up for Canada's loss of tourism

Vacationed there twice this year, instead of once as I do every year.
The rate of exchange is not as favorable to Americans as it was few years ago, so it's not a great bargain these days, but it's still a terrific destination.