OTTAWA - The soaring loonie had Canadians travelling outside the country in record numbers in November.
Canadian residents made a record 2.4 million overnight trips outside the country during the month, up 7.6 per cent from the previous high recorded in October, Statistics Canada reported Friday.
Overnight car trips to the United States rose 16.2 per cent to 1.1 million, the highest number in more than 15 years. Since the end of 2006, overnight auto trips south of the border have risen by 43.6 per cent.
Overnight plane travel to the United States climbed to its second-highest level ever in November, up 0.2 per cent to 502,000 trips. Overnight travel by other modes of transportation edged up 0.1 per cent.
Overall, overnight travel to the United States jumped 10 per cent to 1.8 million trips, the highest since the end of 1991.
Same-day car travel to the United States had a more modest increase, climbing 2.7 per cent to 2.3 million trips.
For the seventh consecutive month, Canadian travel overseas set a new high, with 657,000 trips to non-U.S. destinations, up 1.8 per cent from October.
The agency said the robust Canadian dollar and the media hype surrounding it likely helped drive the increases. The loonie averaged $1.03 US in November after hitting a record 110.31 cents on Nov. 7, up from 86 cents at the end of 2006.
The high loonie may also have kept Americans at home, the report said.
Overnight travel from the United States fell 1.9 per cent to 1.1 million trips in November, while same-day car travel from the United States slumped 6.3 per cent to 824,000 trips, the lowest level since record keeping started in 1972.
The report said American travel patterns changed after February of last year. Overnight trips rose while day trips fell, perhaps because the high Canadian dollar and fuel prices made quick jaunts less enticing.
"This suggests that same-day car travel from the United States may be more vulnerable to external factors predominant in 2007, such as the rising cost of gasoline, the uncertainty surrounding the U.S. economy and the faltering U.S. greenback.''
Travel from overseas countries reached its highest level in over three years in November, as residents of countries other than the United States made 401,000 trips to Canada, up 4.6 per cent from October.
Visits from Mexico and Switzerland posted gains of 13.6 per cent and 10.1 per cent respectively. But travel from the United Kingdom, Canada's most important non-U.S. tourist market, slipped 1.8 per cent to 78,000 trips.
