Despite the call for travel advisories to the tropical country, a new report states Canadians are travelling more than ever before and Mexico is their destination of choice after the U.S.
Statistics Canada' s "International Travel Survey," released on Tuesday, states Mexico surpassed the United Kingdom in 2006 as the most visited foreign destination by Canadians outside of the U.S.
Canadian tourists made an estimated 842,000 overnight visits in Mexico, which is an increase of six per cent from 2005, despite reports that Canadian travellers are assaulted in Mexico more than in any other country.
In comparison, travel to the United Kingdom fell by 13.4 per cent to only 778,000 overnight visits.
More than 16 million overnight trips were made to the U.S., which represented a 7.6 per cent increase to the highest level since 1993.
France, Cuba and the Dominican Republic took the third and fourth spots for the most travelled destination by Canadians.
Travel also increased to all overseas destinations except in South America.
There were 4 million overnight visits made to Europe while the Caribbean had 1.6 million visits.
The largest decline was to Italy, where there were 315,000 overnight visits, a drop of 17.7 per cent from 2005. This followed a gain of nearly 50 per cent during the previous year.
Visits to China rose a whopping 55.7 per cent, which represents the largest increase in travel for the top 10 overseas countries visited by Canadians.
The new study also says Canadians are generally travelling more than ever before and spending more money when they do.
- Canadians took an estimated 22.7 million overnight trips in 2006, and spent a record $20.1 billion while away from home.
- Canadians took 6.7 million trips overseas (not including the U.S.), which represents an 8.2 per cent increase from 2005.
- While overseas, Canadians spent $9.9 billion.
- Canadians spent an estimated $10.2 billion while vacationing in the U.S. and took 16 million trips to the country.
The most popular destination for Canadians in U.S. was New York State, which received 2.6 million visits last year.
But Canadians spent the most money in Florida with $2.4 billion spent in the state in 2006.
Travel by car was the preferred mode of transportation when crossing the border and Canadians cited pleasure as their number one reason for visits to the U.S.
In comparison, Americans travelled less to Canada and spent less money while they were in the country.
However, travel to Canada from overseas destinations rose for the third straight year with residents of the United Kingdom visiting Canada the most.
